THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
COLLECTED, TRANSLATED, AND ANNOTATED
BY
R. L. TAFEL, A. M., PH. D.
VOLUME II, PART II.
SWEDENBORG SOCIETY, BRITISH AND FOREIGN
36 BLOOMSBURY STREET, LONDON
1877
CONTENTS
SECTION XI.
ANECDOTES AND MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS.
DOCUMENT PAGE
277.-Swedenborg on the Death of the Prince of Saxe Coburg Saalfeld 695
278.-The Rev. F. Okely on Swedenborg 696
279.-Klopstock's Visit to Swedenborg 697
280.-Anecdote related by Wenngren 699
281.-Swedenborg in Paris in 1769 700
282.-Professor J. H. Lidén on Swedenborg 701
283.-Swedenborg discussed in the Swedish periodical Literature from 1763-1766 704
A. "Swenska Mercurius" 704
B. "Swenska Magazinet" 706
284.-Swedenborg's own Lists of his theological Writings 707
A. In the "Conjugial Love" 707
B. In the "Doctrine of the Lord" 708
285.-Swedenborg's Work on "The Worship and Love of God" 709
286.-Fate of the confiscated copies of the Work on "Conjugial Love" 710
287.-Preservation from Fire of Swedenborg's "Apocalypsis Explicata" 712
288.-Information collected by a Swedish biographer of Swedenborg 714
289.-Professor Scherer's Anecdote about Swedenborg 715
290.-Professor Atterbom's Anecdote respecting Swedenborg 717
291.-Sundry Anecdotes respecting Swedenborg 722
1. About Swedenborg's not locking his door 722
2. Anecdote told by G. Swederus 723
3. Anecdote about Bishop Halenius' children 723
4. Madame De Frese's Anecdote 724
5. Fryxell's Anecdote 724
6. Dr. A. Kahl's Anecdote 725
292.-Swedenborg and his Gardener-Folks 726
293.-Was Swedenborg a Freemason? 735
294.-Documents collected by Mr. Wm. White 740
A-C Bishop Swedberg's letters to the King 740
D. Bishop Swedberg to lord-Lieutenant Feif 742
E, F. Bishop Swedberg to the King 743
295.-Swedenborg to Trier, the Aulic Councillor in Dresden 744
296.-Swedenborg's Claims against P. Schönström 745
A. Letter addressed to the County Court at Skinskatteberg 745
B, C. Two Promissory Notes 746
297.-A List of Valuables 747
298.-Private Memoranda 748
299.-Swedenborg's thoughts on reading Swammerdam's "Biblia Natur" 750
300.-The Signification of the Horse and Hieroglyphics 751
301.-Sketch of an Ecclesiastical History of the New Church 756
302.-Additions to the "True Christian Religion" 758
A. Additions to No. 695 759
B. Additions to No. 338 761
C. Concerning Order 762
D. The Order of Influx 763
E. Reciprocal Conjunction 763
F. Concerning Influx 764
G. Thoughts of Materialists respecting God 765
H. Memorable Relation respecting a Council in Constantinople 765
I. Miscellanea 767
J. Concerning Odours 768
K. The Being of God or Jehovah 770
L. Concerning Redemption 771
M. Concerning the Lord 771
303.-Last Work projected by Swedenborg, entitled the "Consummation of the Age, the Lord's Second Coming, and the New Church" 773
SECTION XII.
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO SWEDENBORG'S PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS.
INTRODUCTION 777
304.-Catalogue of Swedenborg's MSS. prepared by his Heirs in 1772 779
A. Theological Works 779
B. Philosophical Works 783
C. Letters and Documents 785
305.-A List of Swedenborg's MSS. published in 1782 by A. J. Pernety 787
306.-A List of Swedenborg's MSS. published in 1785 by B. Chastanier 792
307.-First classified Catalogue of the Swedenborg MSS. in the Library of the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, prepared in 1787 by J. Bjrnstjerna 794
A. In large oblong folio 795
B. In smaller oblong folio 795
C. In quarto 796
D. In octavo 797
308.-Official Catalogue of the Swedenborg Library in the Academy of Sciences 797
A. Catalogue of Swedenborg's Writing presented by his heirs to the Academy of Sciences 798
B. Report of an Inventory of the Swedenborgian Deposit taken in 1841 801
309.-The Missing Swedenborg MSS. and their Discovery 802
A. The Missing MSS. identified 802
B. Documentary Account of the first instalment of the Swedenborg MSS. Brought to England in 1783 804
C. Second Instalment of the Swedenborg MSS. brought to England in 1788 810
D. Subsequent History of the Swedenborg MSS. in England 814
E. Description of the Swedenborg MSS. received by the Swedenborg Society in 1841 816
F. An Interrogatory of the Swedenborg Society answered by the
Secretary of the Academy of Sciences 818
G. Attempts made by Swedenborg's Heirs to recover his MSS. from the Academy of Sciences 820
H. A Royal Decision affirming the Right of the Academy of Sciences to the MSS. of Swedenborg 821
I. The Academy of Sciences claims the Swedenborg MSS. from the Swedenborg Society 824
(a) The Royal Academy to the Swedenborg Society 824
(b) Baron Berzelius to Mr. W. M. Wilkinson, Secretary of the Swedenborg Society 825
J. Report of a special General Meeting of the Swedenborg Society in 1842 829
K. Action of the Royal Academy on receiving a copy of the foregoing Report 830
L. Discovery of additional MSS. 831
M. Summary of the History of the Missing Swedenborg MSS. 834
310.-Analysis of the Swedenborg MSS. in the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm 835-875
Codex 1. "Sensus Propheticus" 835
Codices 2. and 3. "Memorabilia" 836
Codex 4. "Index Biblicus Veteris Testamenti" 838
Codex 5. "Index Biblicus Novi Testamenti" 838
Codex 6. "Index Biblicus of Isaiah and Genesis" 839
Codex 7. "An Index of Memorabilia" 840
Codices 8-10. "Arcana Coelestia" 841
Codex 11. "De Charitate" 841
Codex 12. "De Ultimo Judicio" 843
Codex 13. "De Divino Amore" 845
Codex 14. "De Conjugio" 846
Codices 15-26. "Arcana Coelestia" 841
Codices 27-35. "Apocalypsis Explicata" 846
Codex 36. "Excerpts from Aristotle, Plato," &c. 846
Codex 38. "Index Physiologicorum" 848
Codex 39. "Index Biblicus Nominum Propriorum" 838
Codices 40 and 41. "Index Biblicus" 838
Codices 42-45. "Index Memorabilium" 848
Codex 46. Index to a MS. "de Amore Conjugiali" 849
Codex 49. "Biblical Sentences collected under leading heads" 851
Codex 50. "Index to the Concordia Book" 853
Codex 51. "De Cultu et Amore Dei" 853
Codex 52. "Letters to Beyer" 854
Codex 53. "Anatomica et Physiologica" 854
Codex 54. "Physiologica et Metaphysica 855
Codex 55. "Anatomica et Physiologica" 855
Codex 56. "Riksdagsskrifter" 858
Codex 57. "Anatomica, Physiologica Varia" 858
Codex 58. "Anatomica et Physiologica" 859
Codices 59-61. "Explicatio in Verbum Historicum Vet. Test. Tomi III" 861
Codex 62. "Esajas et Jeremias Explicati" 862
Codex 63. (Borrowed by Nordenskjöld) 862
Codex 65. "Anatomica et Physiologica" 863
Codex 68. "De Cultu et Amore Dei" 853
Codex 74. "Anatomica et Physiologica, 4to" 866
Codex 79. "Clavis Hieroglyphica" 868
Codex 80. "Arcana Coelestia" 841
Codex 81. "De Magnete" 868
Codices 82-85. "De Sulphure, de Sale Communi, de Secretione Argenti et
Cupri, de Vitriole" 868
Codex 86. "Geometrica et Algebraica" 870
Codex 88. "Varia Philosophica, Anatomica, et Itineraria" 872
Codices 89 and 90. "Biblia Latina Sebastiani Schmidii in 4to" 873
Codex 95. (taken by Nordenskjöld) 874
Codex 99. "Beskrifning fwer Swenska Masugnar" 874
Codex 103. "Index Rerum in Apocalypsis Revelata" 840
Codex 110. "Index to the Spiritual Diary" 875
Codex 111. "Diarium Spirituale i. e. Diarium Minus" 874
Codex 112. "Complete Index to the Arcana Coelestia" 875
Codex 113. "Index to the Earlier Volumes of the Arcana Coelestia" 875
311.-List of Swedenborg's Scientific Papers preserved in the Cathedral-Library of Linköping 876
312.-An Analysis of the Collection of Swedenborg's Letters 880
313.-Swedenborg's Published and Unpublished Writings in Chronological Order 884-1023
(1.) "Select Sentences of L. A. Seneca and P. S. Minus" 884
(2.) "The Rule of Youth and the Mirror of Old Age" 885
(3.) "To Sophia Brenner" 885
(4.) "Camena Borea" or "the Northern Muse" 886
(5.) "Ludus Heliconius" or "the Heliconian Sport" 886
(6.) "Cantus Sapphicus" or a "Sapphic Poem" 887
(7.) "Ddalus Hyperboreus" 888
(8.) "The Tin-ware of Stjernsund" 889
(9.) "Importance of instituting an Astronomical Observatory" 890
(10.) "De Causis Rerum" or "On the Causes of Things" 890
(11.) "A New Theory concerning the End of the Earth" 891
(12.) "On the mode of assisting Commerce and Manufactures" 892
(13.) "A memorial on Salt-works in Sweden" 892
(14.) "The nature of Fire and Colours" 892
(15.) "Regelkonsten" or "Algebra" 892
(16.) "Contributions to Geometry and Algebra" 893
(17.) "Attempt at finding the Longitude by the Moon," Swedish edition 894
(18.) "Om Jordens Gang och Stand" or "the Moon," Swedish edition 894
(19.) "Om Watness Hödg" or "the great Depth of Water in the primeval World" 895
(20.) "Description of Swedish Iron Furnaces" 897
(21.) "Anatomy of our most subtle Nature" 897
(22.) "New Directions for discovery Metallic Veins" 898
(23.) "Docks, canal-locks, and saltworks" 898
(24.) "The Decimal System" 899
(25.) "The Rise and Fall of Lake Wenner" 899
(26.) "First Principles of Natural Things" or the "lesser Principia" 899
(27.) "Letter to Jacob Melle" 900
(28.) "Principles of Chemistry" 900
(29.) "New Observations respecting Iron and Fire" 901
(30.) "A New Method for finding the Longitude," Latin edition 901
(31.) "Docks and Dykes," Latin edition 902
(32.) "New Rules for maintaining Heat in Rooms" 902
(33.) "Miscellanea Observata" or "Miscellaneous Observations" 902
(34.) "Fable of the Love of the Muse Urania" 905
(35.) "A Law of Hydrostatics" 905
(36.) "The Fall and Rise in Swedish Money" 906
(37.) "The Magnet and its Qualities" 906
(38.) "The genuine Treatment of Metals" 906
(39.) "The Motion of the elements in general" 906
(40.) "Papers belonging to the Principia" 907
(41.) "The Mechanism of the Soul and Body" 907
(42.) "Comparison of Wolf's Ontology and Cosmology with Swedenborg's Principia" 908
(43.) "Swedenborg's Anatomical Observations" 908
(44.) "Itinerarium" or "Journal of Travels for 1733 and 1734" 908
(45.) "Opera Philosophica et Mineralia" 908
Vol. I. "Principia" 908
Vol. II. "Treatise on Iron" 910
Vol. III. "Treatise on Copper" 911
(46.) "Outlines of the Infinite, and the Mechanism of the operation of Soul and Body" 912
(47.) "An Abstract of the Principia" 914
(48.) "Fragments of Three Transactions on the Brain" 914
(49.) "Intinerarium" or "Journal of Travels from 1736-1739" 915
(50.) "The Way to the Knowledge of the soul" 915
(51.) "Faith and Good Works" 915
(52.) "OEconomia Regni Animalis" 915
(53.) Philosophy of Universals" 918
(54.) "The Bones of the Skull and Ossification" 919
(55.) "Corpuscular Philosophy" 920
(56.) "Anatomy of the larger and lesser Brains" 920
- "Two Dissertations on the Nervous Fibre and the Nervous Fluid," their authorship determined 922
- "Thoughts on the Origin of the Soul and Hereditary Evil," wrongly attributed to Swedenborg 924
(57.) "Introduction to Rational Psychology," Part I 925
(58.) "The Declination of the Magnetic Needle" 927
(59.) "Introduction to Rational Psychology" Part II 927
(60.) "Hieroglyphic Key" 928
(61.) "Concordance of the three systems concerning the Intercourse between the Soul and the Body" 928
(62.) "The Red blood" 929
(63.) "The Animal Spirit" 929
(64.) "Sensation, or the Passion of the Body" 930
(65.) "The origin and propagation of the Soul" 930
(66.) "Action" 930
(67.) "Rational Psychology" 931
(68.) "The Signification of Philosophical Terms or Ontology" 934
(69.) "Anatomy of the human body, treating of the Generative Organs and the Senses" 935
(70.) "Digest of Swammerdam's Biblia Natur" 937
(71.) "Regnum Animale," Parts I and II 937
(72.) "Private Diary for 1743 and 1744" 941
(73.) "On Sense in General, its influx into the soul, and the reaction of the latter" 941
(74.) "The Muscles of the Face and Abdomen" 942
(75.) "Physical and Optical Experiments" 943
(76.) "On the Brain" 943
(77.) "Regnum Animale," Part III 944
The New Series of the "Regnum Animale" 945
The Old Series of the "Regnum Animale" 946
(78.) "The Worship and Love of God," Parts I & II 947
(79.) "Worship and Love of God," Part III 949
(80.) "History of Creation as related by Moses" 950
(81.) "The Messiah about to come into the World" 951
(82.) "Explanation of the historical Word of the Old Testament," also called the "Adversaria," Parts I-III 951
(83.) "Index Biblicus to the historical books of the Old Testament 954
(84.) "Esaiah and Jeremiah" also called "Adversaria," Part IV 955
(85.) "Notes on Jeremiah and the Lamentations" 955
(86.) "Index Biblicus to Isaiah, and a portion of Jeremiah and Genesis 956
(87.) "Memorabilia" or "Spiritual Diary," Part I 957
(88.) "Fragments of Notes on Genesis and Exodus" 959
(89.) "Fragments of Notes on Prophets" 962
(90.) "Names of Men, Countries, Kingdoms, and Towns in the Sacred Scripture" 964
(91.) Index Biblicus to the Prophets, Psalms, Job, the Apocalypse and likewise to Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy 966
(92.) "Index Biblicus to the New Testament" 969
(93.) "Memorabilia" or "Spiritual Diary," Part II 970
(94.) "Arcana Coelestia, which are in Genesis" 971
(95.) "Arcana Coelestia, which are in Exodus" 971
(96.) "Memorabilia" or "Spiritual Diary," Part III 977
(97.) "Do.," Part IV 978
(98.) "Index to the 'Adversaria' and the 'Memorabilia," Parts I-IV" 979
(99, A.) "Memorabilia" or "Spiritual Diary, Part V" 979
(99, B.) "Index to the 'Memorabilia,' Parts III-V 980
(100.) "Index to the Arcana Coelestia 980
(101.) "Heaven and Hell" 981
(102.) "The White Horse 981
(103.) "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine" 982
(104.) The Earths in the Universe" 983
(105.) "The Last Judgment" 983
(106.) "Apocalypse Explained" (posthumous) 984
(107.) "The Athanasian Creed" (posthumous) 988
(108.) "The Lord" (posthumous) 989
(109.) "Internal Sense of the Prophets and Psalms" (posthumous) 990
(110.) "Papers for the Swedish Diet" 991
(111.) "The Last Judgment" (posthumous) 991
(112.) "The Spiritual World" (posthumous) 992
(113.) "The Sacred Scripture, or the Word of the Lord from experience" (posthumous) 993
(114.) "He precepts of the Decalogue," a sketch (posthumous) 994
(115.) "Observations on Faith" (posthumous) 994
(116.) "Doctrine of the Lord" 994
(117.) "Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture" 994
(118.) "Doctrine of Life" 994
(119.) "Doctrine of Faith" 994
(120.) "Continuation of the Last Judgment" 996
(121.) "On Inlaying Marble-slabs for Tables" etc. 997
(122.) "The Divine Love" 997
(123.) "The Divine Wisdom" 997
(124.) "Divine Love and Wisdom" 998
(125.) "Divine Providence" 999
(126.) "Doctrine of Charity" 999
(127.) "Apocalypse Revealed" 1000
(128.) "Method of Finding the Longitude," of 1766 1002
(129.) "On the Horse and Hieroglyphics" 1002
(130.) "Index to the 'Apocalypse Revealed'" 1002
(131.) "Five Memorable Relations" 1002
(132.) "Conversation with Angels" 1003
(133.) First work on "Conjugial Love" 1003
(134.) "Memorabilia on Marriage" 1004
(135.) "Conjugial Love" 1005
(136.) "The natural and spiritual sense of the Word" 1006
(137.) "Justification and Good Works" 1006
(138.) "Outlines of the Doctrines of the New Church" 1006
(139.) "Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church" 1006
(140.) "Intercourse between the Soul and the Body" 1009
(141.) "An Answer to a Letter written by a friend" 1011
(142.) "Nine Queries concerning the Trinity," &c. 1012
(143.) "The Canons of the New Church" 1012
(144.) "Dicta Probantia" or "Corroborating Passages from the Old and New Testaments" 1013
(145.) "True Christian Religion" 1014
(146.) "Additions to the 'True Christian Religion'" 1020
(147.) "An Ecclesiastical History of the New Church" 1020
(148.) "A Summary of the Coronis," &c. 1020
(149.) "Coronis, or Appendix to the 'True Christian Religion'" 1021
(150.) "The Consummation of the Age, Invitation to the New Church," &c. 1023
SECTION XIII.
APPENDIX.
314.-Swedenborg and tinger 1027-1061
A. tinger to Duke Charles of Würtemberg 1029
B. tinger to Swedenborg, in 1767 1035
C. tinger to Declaration to the Privy Council of Würtemberg 1036
D. Dr. G. Beyer to Prelate tinger 1041
e. Extracts from tinger's Letters to Count von Castell 1055
F. tinger to Hartmann 1057
315.-Wm. Cookworthy's Testimony 1061
NOTES TO VOLUME II
NOTE PAGE
149. The Authenticity of Swedenborg's Diary for 1743 and 1744 1063
150. The Countess De la Gardie 1064
151. Count Fersen 1064
152. Major Lantingshausen 1065
153. Colonel Schwerin 1065
154. Dr. Carl Jesper Benzelius 1065
155. Baron A. F. Hamilton 1065
156. Baron E. Ch. Reuterholm 1065
157. Trievald 1065
158. Prince Frederic Augustus 1065
159. Adolphus Frederic 1065
160. Historical Character of the Persons mentioned in the Diary for 1743 and 1744 1067
161. Swedenborg's Philosophy of Dreams 1070
162. Swedenborg's spiritual state in 1743 and 1744 1082
163. Calendar of Swedenborg's whereabouts in 1743 and 1744 1089
164. Swedenborg's Studies in 1743 and 1744 1091
165. Swedenborg's Theology in 1743 and 1744 1096
I. The Divine Trinity 1096
II. Jesus Christ, the Son of God 1098
III. Names of the Lord Jesus Christ 1100
IV. The Holy Spirit 1101
V. The Atonement 1102
VI. The Blood and Merit of Christ 1103
VII. Imputation of the Justice of Christ 1104
VIII. The Efficacy of Grace 1105
IX. Faith and Life 1107
A. Nature of Faith 1108
B. Faith and Charity 1109
X. Free Will 1110
166. Swedenborg's Philosophy in 1743 and 1744 1113
I. Philosophy and Revelation 1114
II. Influence of the Will on the Understanding 1115
III. Thought and Respiration 1116
IV. End, Cause, and Effect 1117
167. Erland Broman 1118
168. The Date of the Opening of Swedenborg's Spiritual Sight 1118
169. Translation of a Swedish Hymn 1127
170. Count Henning Gyllenborg 1128
171. Ambassador Preis 1129
172. Professor Winbom 1129
173. Count Carl Ehrenpreus 1129
174. Joachim Wretman 1130
175. Count Gustavus von Bonde 1130
176. John Christian Edelmann 1131
177. Professor Samuel lf 1132
178. Bishop Erik Lamberg 1132
179. Dean Olof A. Ekebom 1133
180. Archbishop Menander 1134
181. Bishop Jacob Serenius 1135
182. Prelate tinger 1135
183. Prelate Bengel 1137
184 Immanuel Kant 1137
185. J. C. Dippel 1138
186. J. C. Lavater 1139
187. Doctor Magnus Roempke 1141
188. Bishop Wallenstrle 1142
189. Professor L. J. Kullin 1142
190. Pastor Hempe 1142
191. Assessor A. J. Aurell 1142
192. Bishop Lutkeman 1143
193. Count Creutz 1143
194. Peter Hammarberg 1144
195. Councillor Wenngren 1144
196. Baron J. Rosir, Chancellor of Justice 1144
197. Magister J. Gothenius 1145
198. Count E. Stockenström 1145
199. Count M. von Hermanson 1146
200. Count Claes Ekeblad 1146
201. General Christian Tuxen 1147
202. Count Bernstorff 1151
203. Count O. Thott 1153
204. Assessor Queckfelt 1154
205. Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt 1154
206. Baron D. Tilas 1154
207. The Prince of Prussia 1227
208. Librarian C. C. Gjörwell 1155
209. Professor Nils Wallerius 1156
210. Epitaph on Swedenborg 1157
211. Bishop Dr. Celsius 1158
212. John Christian Cuno 1159
213. Baron de Breteuil 1161
214. Paracelsus 1162
215. Jung-Stilling 1163
216. Peter III, Emperor or Russia 1165
217. Stephen Penny 1166
218. Rev. John Clowes 1166
219. William Cookworthy 1170
220. Professors A. Gerard, R. Hamilton, and R. Traill 1173
221. Dr. Wm. Spence 1174
222. Benedict Chastanier 1176
223. Peter Provo 1180
224. Eric Bergström 1181
225. Robert Hindmarsh 1182
226. Richard Shearsmith 1187
227. Henry Servant 1187
228. J. A. Tulk 1189
229. Henry Peckitt 1191
230. Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson 1193
231. Swedenborg's Portraits 1196
232. Flaxman 1199
233. Charles A. Tulk 1201
234. Swedenborg's Skull 1202
235. Bishop Forsenius 1208
236. The Brothers Knös 1208
237. Rev. Samuel Noble 1209
238. John Wesley 1212
239. Rev. Isaac Hawkins 1216
J. I. Hawkins, the engineer 1217
240. Rev. Manoah Sibly 1219
241. Wm. Gomm 1221
242. Immanuel Kant 1137
243. "The Englishman Green" 1222
244. Thiebault, the Academician 1225
245. Merian, the Academician 1226
246. Augustus William, Prince of Prussia 1227
247. Count J. Ph. Von Schwerin 1228
248. Captain Stålhammar 1228
249. (a) Chamberlain von Ammon 1229
(b) Countess von Schwerin 1229
(c) Certificate of marriage of Madame de Marteville 1229
250. Sophia Albertina, Princess of Sweden 1229
251. Chevalier Beylon 1230
252. Bishop C. G. Nordin 1231
253. L. L. von Brenkenhoff 1233
254. Anders Fryxell 1234
Review of his "Biography of Swedenborg" 1234
255. Count C. Rudensköld 1242
256. Count Lars von Engeström 1242
257. Rev. F. Okely 1243
258. Prof. J. F. Lidén 1245
259. Archbishop Troilius 1245
260. Christian Johansen 1246
261. Professor J. B. von Scherer 1248
262. Professor D. A. Atterbom 1248
263. Baron von Beskow 1249
264. Dr. C. A. Wetterbergh 1249
265. G. Swederus 1250
266. H. G. Porthan 1250
267. Wm. White 1284
268. C. Benzelstjerna 1251
269. P. W. Wargentin 1251
270. J. C. Wilke 1251
271. Baron J. Berzelius 1252
272. Rev. Manoah Sibly 1219
273. Rev. J. Proud 1252
274. C. G. von Brinkman 1255
275. J. F. Fåhraeus 1255
276. Martin Schurigius 1255
277. Leeuwenhoek 1256
278. Swammerdam 1256
279. Heister 1257
280. Morgagni 1258
281. Boerhaave 1258
282. A. Nuck 1259
283. Winslow 1260
284. Albinus 1260
285. Lancisi 1261
286. Cassebohm 1261
287. Malpighi 1261
288. Willis 1262
289. Vieussens 1263
290. Bartholin 1263
291. Ridley 1264
292. Professor Quensel 1264
293. Professor Klingenstjerna 1264
294. Sophia Brenner 1265
295. Count Magnus Stenbock 1266
Swedenborg's Ode in praise of Stenbock 1266
296. Jacob Melle 1269
297. Count M. Wellingk 1269
298. Landgrave William of Hesse Cassel 1270
299. J. Björnstierna 1270
300. Jonas Apelblad 1271
301. Sebastian Schmidt 1271
The Theological Faculty of Strasburg on his Latin version of the Word 1273
302. Johan Tybeck 1276
303. Major Gyllenhaal 1279
304. Count von Castell 1281
305. Professor Semler 1281
306. Fricker 1282
307. Dr. A. Kahl 1282
308. Mr. William White 1284
I. Contradictions between Mr. White in 1856, and Mr. White in 1867 1287
(a.) On Bishop Swedberg 1287
(b.) On Swedenbrog's Character 1287
(c.) On Swedenborg's Writings generally 1289
(d.) On Particular Writings 1290
(e.) Miscellaneous 1294
II Contradictions in Mr. White's "Life" of 1867 1295
III. Mr. White on Swedenborg's "Conjugial Love" 1296
IV. Mr. White on Swedenborg's alleged Insanity 1304
V. Charges of Error refuted 1307
(1.) The Sexuality of Plants 1308
(2.) Louis XV 1310
VI. Mr. White and the "Book of Dreams" 1312
VII. Mistakes and unfounded assertions 1316
VIII. Inaccuracies 1317
IX Mr. White and Spiritism 1318
Mr. White's connection with the Swedenborg Society 1319
His removal from the agency 1322
The case of Spurgin v. White in the Court of Chancery 1324
The case of White v. Bayley in the court of Common Pleas 1325
The decision of the arbitrator 1327
X. Mr. White's Documents concerning Swedenborg 1329
1, 2. Bishop Swedberg to Charles XII 1329
3. Bishop Swedberg to Lord Lieutenant Feif 1330
4-6. Bishop Swedberg to King Charles XII 1331
309.-Dr. Jr. F. Immanuel Tafel 1332
310.-The Librarian G. E. Klemming 1334
SECTION XII
ANECDOTES AND MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS.
DOCUMENT 277.
SWEDENBORG ON THE DEATH OF THE PRINCE OF SAXE COBURG S"ALFELD.*
* This Document was presented until recently in the celebrated Engeström256 Library in Stockholm. There it was copied by the Royal Librarian G. E. Klemming, and printed in the appendix to his edition of "Swedenborg's Drmmar," p. 73, which was published in 1869. He states there that the explanatory passages were added by His Excellency, Count Lars von Engeström.256 Since the publication of the "Drmmar" this document, together with several others, has come into the possession of the Royal Library in Stockholm. Swedenborg's autograph (no. 2 in the Document), however, had disappeared from the collection.
This document had been previously published in the "Allmnna Journalen," no. 104, in 1813.
1. The following guestion was written down by Senator, Count Rudenskd,255 at the request of a foreign minister:
"Pro Memoria [from the year 1771.]
"It is hoped that by means of Monsieur de Swedenborg information be obtained of what has Prince of Saxe Cogurg Saalfeld, named John William, who was lost in the year 1745, without any one having the least knowledge of his fate. Neither his age, nor anything else respecting his person has been communicated."
2. The following memorable answer was given by Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg with his own hand:
"No one can find out anything concerning this, since the departed themselves do not know in what manner they died or perished in the world: for death to them is not death, but an entrance into the other life, and a continuation of the former.
They also fully believe and think that there is no death at all; wherefore, if any one is asked about his decease in the world, it seems to him as if he was asked about a thing which has not happened. Besides, it is difficult to meet with any one who departed this life twenty-seven years ago; for he is then firmly established in some society, where it is difficult for me to enter. Should I ask the angels on this subject, they have no such knowledge at all, and as to interrogating the Lord Himself concerning it, it is too small a matter. As to the rest I desire [for you] the Lord's blessing."
DOCUMENT 278.
THE REV. F. OKELY257 ON SWEDENBORG.*
* This Document is extracted from a letter addressed by the Rev. F. Okely to the Rev. J. Wesley on December 10, 1772. It was printed by the latter in the "Arminian Magazine" for 1775, Vol. VIII, p. 552.
.... "Baron Swedenborg is to me a riddle. Certainly, as you say, he speaks many great and important truths; and as certainly seems to me to contradict Scripture in other places. But, as he told me, I could not understand his Vera Christiana Religio without a Divine illumination; and I am obliged to confess that I have not yet a sufficiency of it for that purpose. I am thankful, my present course does not seem absolutely to require it.
"We conversed in the High Dutch; and notwithstanding the impediment in his speech, I understood him well. He spoke with all the coolness and deliberation you might expect from any, the most sober and rational man. Yet what he said was out of my sphere of intelligence, when he related his sight of, and daily conversation in, the world of spirits, with which he declared himself better acquainted than with this."
DOCUMENT 279.
KLOPSTOCK'S VISIT TO SWEDENBORG.*
* The above account of this visit is contained in the "Berlinische Monatsschrift," Vol. XI, 1788, p. 516; also in Dring's "Life of Klopstock," 1825, p. 242 et seq.; likewise in the edition of his "Collected works" published under the editorship of H. Schmidlin, Vol. 1. 1839, p. 357.
"Swedenborg was once in Copenhagen. Our ladies insisted that I should go and call on him; for I myself had no interest in seeing him: he was no object of curiosity to me. Who is not acquainted from history with persons like him, ruined by pride and arrogance? I missed it with him in the beginning by not expressing any desire for purchasing his expensive volumes in quarto. I, nevertheless, entered upon the subject that had brought me to him, and requested him to enter into a conversation with one of my departed friends. In a tone which was still more tiresome than the style in which he expressed himself, lie said, 'If His Royal Majesty, the present King of Denmark, Frederic V,' (I do not add a single word),' had ordered me most graciously with his departed consort, Her Majesty Queen Louisa, to--'I interrupted him saying, 'Unless a person whose friends are in the other world happens to be a prince, Mr. Swedenborg does not deign to speak with him.' I left him; when he said, 'As soon as you go, I shall again be in the society of spirits.' 'In that case,' I replied, 'I should be wrong not to hasten away; for I do not wish to deprive you by my presence of such good company.'"
Dr. Immanuel Tafel in commenting on this account* says, "It is strange how much man is blinded by passion.
If Klopstock had impartially scanned Swedenborg's course action, he would have seen, that his refusal to accede Klopstock's request contributed to his honour, and not to his dishonour, and, far from being a sign of pride and haughtiness, was pointed out to him by duty. For, if he had really complied with Klopstock's request, he would have merited Jung-Stilling's reproof (see note 215), and lowered himself to the level of a mere soothsayer. Besides, he would have squandered the precious opportunities he owed to the service of his Lord, and would have exposed himself to the still greater annoyance of being visited by curious and inquisitive people, which in the end would have interfered with the special object he had in view. For if he had once granted such a request, to be consistent it seems that he would have had to do it over again, in the case of every other person sent to him by inquisitive ladies; when yet he had long ago declared that the spiritual truths revealed to humanity through his instrumentality did not require such merely natural signs, and that far from being proved thereby, they shone in their own light. He was therefore quite right in referring Klopstock to his writings, where, as he frequently said to others, he would find an answer to every thing; and he could do so with so much better grace, as he had not written his works for money, but had made presents of them in every direction, especially to the clergy and the learned, and to public libraries; whence Klopstock or his ladies could have easily borrowed them in Copenhagen, without going to the expense of purchasing them themselves. Klopstock's refusal, however, to have anything to do with Swedenborg's writings would certainly not testify, in the eyes of the latter gentleman, to his love of the truth. Besides, Swedenborg could not have failed to notice in the case of Klopstock the absence of every reason that could possibly have justified his application; since Klopstock himself acknowledges, that he acted as a mere tool in the hands of some ladies, who, for all we know, were actuated only by curiosity. Under such circumstances Swedenborg would, in our estimation, have been really blamable, had he complied with Klopstock's request, or had he not made his compliance contingent upon a command from above.
Whether he did so in the present case, we are unable to tell, since Klopstock did not allow him to finish his speech; but it is very probable that he intended to say, that even if the King of Denmark demanded from him such a proof, he would be unable to obey him, unless his application was justified by his motive"
* "Sammlung von Urkunden," &c., Part. IV, p. 120 et seq.
DOCUMENT 280.
ANECDOTE RELATED BY WENNGREN.195*
* This anecdote appeared first in the "New Jerusalem Magazine" for 1790, p. 41, with the following note: "This relation was received by one of the editors in 1786 from Mr. Wenngren, who is now living at Gottenburg, and is one of the magistrates of that place."
"About the year 1766, Swedenborg went to Gottenburg, intending to embark for England: when he arrived there, he took his passage in a vessel which was to sail in a few days. During his stay at Gottenburg, Dr. Beyer22 accidentally met him in company, and entertaining, from report, the same sentiments with many others in that country, with respect to his being a madman, on account of his assertion, that he had communication with the spiritual world, he was surprised when he observed that Swedenborg spoke very sensibly, without discovering any marks of that infirmity of which he was suspected; he therefore invited Swedenborg to dine with him the day following, in company with Dr. Ros?45 After dinner, Dr. Beyer expressed a desire, in the presence of Dr. Ros? to hear from himself a full account of his doctrines; upon which Swedenborg, animated by the request, spoke so clearly, and in so wonderful a manner, on the subject, that the Doctor and his friend were quite astonished. They did not interrupt him; but when the discourse was ended, Dr. Beyer requested Swedenborg to meet him the next day at Mr. Wenngren's, and to bring with him a paper, containing the substance of his discourse, that he might consider it more attentively.
Swedenborg came the day following, according to his promise, and, taking the paper out of his pocket, in the presence of the other two gentlemen, he trembled, and appeared much affected, the tears flowing down his cheeks; when, presenting the paper to Dr. Beyer, 'Sir,' said he, 'from this day the Lord has introduced you into the society of angels, and you are now surrounded by them.' They were all greatly affected. He then took his leave, and the nest clay embarked for England.
"The Doctor immediately sent for his writings; and, to arrange the subjects more distinctly in his mind, began the Index, [Index Initialis in Opera Swedenborgii Theologica, &c.] which, as he prepared, he sent, sheet by sheet, to Amsterdam to be printed. He was thirteen years in completing that work, and on the day he sent off the last sheet corrected, he became ill, took to his bed, and, in a few days, it pleased the Lord to call him to Himself, to bestow on him the reward of his useful labours."
DOCUMENT 281.
SWEDENBORG IN PARIS 1N 1769.*
* Concerning Swedenborg's journey to Paris, see Document 244, pp. 297, 301, 309.
In the preface to the French translation of Swedenborg's "True Christian Religion," which was published in Paris in 1802, we read as follows:
"Swedenborg came to Paris in 1769. He tried to get his 'True Christian Religion' printed there; but in order to do so he had to get the permission of the censor of books. M. Chevreuil, who was then royal censor and doctor of the Sorbonne, was instructed to examine it, and after reading it, said that he would receive a tacit permission, provided the title-page, as was usual, declared that the book was printed either in London or Amsterdam.
But Swedenborg, influenced by a rare delicacy, which was due to his principles, would not consent to it, and the book was not printed in France.
"This anecdote which had not been previously known, was communicated to one of the editors by M. Chevreuil himself."
While in Paris at that time Swedenborg was visited by the celebrated Swedish traveller Björnstahl,120 as appears from the following passage in his published travels:*
*"Resa til Frankrike, Italien" &c. beskrifven af och efter Jac. Jon. Björnstahl, 1780. Vol. I, p. 42.
"I had almost forgotten to relate that Mr. Swedenborg came here (in Paris) last summer, bringing with him a book he had printed in Holland, entitled, Summaria Expositio Doctrin Nov Ecclesi, qu per novam Hierosolymam in Apocalypsi intelligitur, ab Emanuele Swedenborg, Sveco, Amsterdam, 1769, 4to, 67 pages. From Paris he afterwards travelled to London. He has also printed a book here [?], which I have not yet received. He was forbidden to have it published here, which hastened his departure to London."
M. Chevreuil's account corrects in some particulars that published by Björnstahl.
DOCUMENT 282.
PROFESSOR J. H. Lidén258 CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
A LETTER TO C. C. Gjörwell,208 EDITOR OF "ALMNNA TIDNINGAR."*
* This letter was printed in nos. 86 and 87, of the "Almnna Tidningar" (General News), published in Stockholm on July 5, and 7, 1770.
"I wrote you a long letter yesterday, but as, since writing it, I have had the honour of conversing with Assessor Swedenborg, and likewise of receiving his works which have lately been printed here in London, I thought I should do a pleasant service to you by writing you a few words about it. The following are the titles of the works:
1. "A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church, Understood by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, wherein is also demonstrated, that throughout the Christian world the worshipping of three gods is received from the Creed of St. Athanasius. By Emanuel Swedenborg, a native of Sweden, London, 1769, large 8vo, 159 pages. This is a translation of the Latin work, printed at the beginning" of the year in Amsterdam, bearing the title, Summaria Expositio Doctrin Nov Hierosolym, qu per novam Hierosolymam in Apocalypsi intelligitur, which work has probably been received in Sweden.
2. "De Commercio Anim et Corporis, quod creditur fieri vel per Influxum Physicum, vel per Influxum Spiritualem, vel per Harmoniam Prstabilitam, ab Emanuele Swedenborg. Three sheets, 4to. This is quite a new work, written in Latin, here in London. The following sixteen paragraphs embrace the leading subjects treated of in the book." Mr. Lidén quotes the headings of the chapters, as given by Swedenborg, and then continues: "If you cannot make anything out of the contents of the book, it is not my fault; for I cannot make others comprehend what I do not comprehend myself. At the close of the work may be read one of the Assessor's visions, which he describes as follows:" Mr. Lidén quotes here the introduction of the memorable relation, in which Aristotle, Descartes, Leibnitz, and Wolff are introduced, and then gives the following summary of it: "These old gentlemen begin now a most learned disputation on the intercourse between the soul and the body, but cannot agree; wherefore they at last resolve to find out the right mode of influx by the casting of lots; when the lot declares for spiritual influx."
3. "An Answer to a Letter written to me by a Friend," [Document 2] which consists merely of four pages, 8vo, but is very interesting to read." After giving a long abstract of this printed letter, Mr. Lidén says:
"I am curious as to what the English journalists will say about these 'Swedenborgiana.' The author has presented a sufficient number of copies to the Royal Society, to Sion College, the bishops, and the universities.
He has also promised to send me some copies for the libraries in Upsal and Stockholm.
"Since Mr. Swedenborg arrived here, he has spent most of his time in his sleeping room, where he converses with spirits; except when I called on him several times, and broke off their spiritual intercourse with him. Senator Lwenhjelm* has twice visited him; President Gerdeschld** once; but Archbishop Troilius259 he has not seen for a long time. In Paris Swedenborg declared that Louis XIV. had married Queen Christina [in the other world]. But who can remember all these wonderful revelations!
* Count Carl Gustav Lwenhjelm, was born in 1701; he became Senator (Riks Rd) in 1751; and died on March 3, 1768.
** Johan Gerdeskld was born in 1698; in 1763 he became President of the court of appeals in Stockholm (Swea Hofrtt); and died on June 15, 1768.
"I have often wondered how it is possible for Assessor Swedenborg to discourse with clearness, intelligence, and strong penetration on all other subjects, while as soon as you give him the least opportunity of conversing about the spiritual world, he becomes quite incomprehensible. Last evening I was in company with some witty Englishmen, where among other things we talked about Swedenborg's writings and his intercourse with spirits; it occurred to one of the company to propose the 'New Jerusalem Gentleman' (this is the way in which he referred to him) as the Prime Minister of England, in order to see whether the people would be satisfied with the administration of a man of such spiritual and uncommon intelligence; since no common man has ever had the good fortune to prove satisfactory to this unruly people.
"To morrow Mr. Swedenborg will leave London for Sweden; this is probably his last journey abroad....
"JOHN HENRY Lidén.
"London, August 29, 1769."
DOCUMENT 283.
SWEDENBORG DISCUSSED IN THE SWEDISH PERIODICAL LITERATURE FROM 1763 TO 1766.
A.
"SWENSKA MERCURIUS11"*.
* The "Swenska Mercurius" (Swedish Mercury), edited by C. C. Gjörwell from 1755 to 1765.
1. In the number for June, 1763, we read as follows: "Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg, who is far-famed for his learned writings and peculiar views, in the beginning of June left Stockholm by sea for Holland, notwithstanding his advanced age" (p. 477).
2. In the number for January, 1764, there is a review of a book by S. J. Alnander entitled: "Anvisning til et Utvaldt Theologiskt Bibliothek" (Aid towards the formation of a select Theological Library). In this review (p. 73), the theological writings of Swedenborg are introduced thus: "In these enlightened days Assessor Em. Swedenborg has undertaken to explain and interpret the revealed Word by means of a new revelation, peculiar to himself, viz. ex visis et auditis, as he calls his sources of a new light in religion. His works in physics and the art of mining are known; but not so much his writings in exegetical theology, which are contained in many quarto volumes, published in London. As these works are very rare, and have already been mentioned by Mr. Alnander, (p. 285) we do not hesitate to communicate their titles for the benefit of such of our readers as do not study theology, and nevertheless desire to have rare and singular books in their libraries; and we do so with a feeling of perfect safety, as we can attest that their contents are far beyond our own modest power of comprehension."
The critic gives then the complete Latin titles of the following works, "Arcana Coelestia," "Heaven and Hell," "The Last Judgment," "The New Jerusalem," "The White Horse," and "The Earths in the Universe."
3. In the number for August, 1764, we read: "Assessor Eman. Swedenborg has recently returned from his journey abroad (see "Swedish Mercury," June, 1763, p. 477). He staid most of the time in Holland, where he published several new books in Amsterdam. The former singular works of the assessor, treating on theology, have been enumerated in the January number of the 'Swenska Mercurius.' Those which he has published since are as follows." The editor gives now the Latin titles of the following works, A The Divine Love and Wisdom," "The Divine Providence," "The Four Leading Doctrines," and "The Continuation concerning the Last Judgment," e&.; concerning which he says, "All these are in large 4to, and superbly printed, like the larger and smaller works published in London from 1749 to 1758. The whole collection is in the Royal Library of Stockholm, as a present from the author" (p. 651).
4. In the number for February, 1765, we read: "The journalists abroad* announce a singular work, bearing the following title: Doctrina Nov Hierosolym de Domino, &c., which contains entirely new revelations, and the most unheard of visions. The author says, that upon the express command of God he produces them in the light of day, and that the things he writes he himself has seen, not while asleep, but in a state of perfect wakefulness; also that for nineteen years he has had permission with open eyes to wander about in the spiritual world, i. e. in those lands which are inhabited by deceased men, and where they lead a new life, after their death. Nothing is more erroneous than our notions about the future world. It has been thought that our actions in God's Kingdom could not consist in eating and drinking, of in enjoying bodily pleasures.
All this is wrong. On the contrary, we eat and drink there just as here, we sleep and wake up; and still more, people marry there and beget children [?], at least they enjoy connubial delights. Heaven also looks just like our earth. Mountains and hills are there, streams and lakes, forests and parks, cities and houses, gold and silver, &c.; at least according to the author and his writings. Races are distributed in a similar way as in Europe, and bear the same name. The English are the first among God's children, and live in the centre of that new world, and in two towns as large as London. The author has often been there, so that he is quite certain of it. The Dutch are nearest to them; they take good care of themselves, and are fond of money, just as in the former world. Luther and Melancthon, on the other hand, have lost their distinction, and they fare badly, on account of having condemned good works, and declared that they do not belong to faith. But Calvin leads a blessed life, since he has recognized the truth of the epistle of James, and brings forth the fruits of faith. The author has had the honour of waiting upon King Louis XIV. He enjoys great authority, and rules over his Frenchmen with great wisdom. The author was once at court with him, when be among other things related to his courtiers that he had been with his successor Louis XV. In order to exhort him not to accept the Bulla Unigenitus, as being injurious to his country. That revelation occurred at Versailles, on December 13, 1759, at eight o'clock in the evening. This is a very important anecdote in French History; we nevertheless think that this is sufficient to give our readers a foretaste of this singular work. The author's remaining ideas on the subject of the articles of our faith, are entirely passed over" (pp. 167 to 169).
* See "Bibliotque des Sciences et des Beaux Arts," October, November, and December, 1763, p. 550 et seq. and the "Journal des Savans," October, 1764, Dutch edition, p. 528. Both these journals are published in Amsterdam and the Hague. See also "Monthly Review" for June, 1764, Vol. XXX, p. 573.
B.
"SWENSKA MAGAZINET"*.
* "Swenska Magazinet" (The Swedish Magazine) was published by C. C. Gjörwell during the years 1766 and 1767.
1. In the number for February, 1766 (p. 132) we read under the head of "Short Swedish News about the learned for the year 1765:" "Mr. Assessor Eman. Swedenborg has again left Holland, via Gottenburg, in order to publish in that country a large work of the book of Revelation."
2. In the number for December, 1766, we read: "Assessor Eman. Swedenborg has also returned home, but from Holland."
DOCUMENT 284.
SWEDENBORG'S OWN LISTS OF HIS THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS.
A.
"THEOLOGICAL BOOKS HITHERTO PUBLISHED BY ME."*
* See "Delit Sapienti de Amore Conjugiali," Amsterdam, 1768, p. 328.
"Arcana Coelestia, containing an explanation of Genesis and Exodus, 8 vols., London, published from 1747 to 1758.
"Heaven and Hell. The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine. The Last Judgment. The White Horse. The Earths in the Universe, London, published in 1758.
"Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord. The Sacred Scripture. Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem. [Doctrine of Faith.] Continuation concerning the New Jerusalem and the Spiritual World. Amsterdam, published in 1763.
"Angelic Wisdom respecting the Divine Providence; and respecting the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, Amsterdam, published in 1763.
"The Apocalypse Revealed, Amsterdam, published in 1764.
"These boobs are sold in London at Mr. Hart, Printer, in Popping's Court, Fleet-street, and at Mr. Lewis, in Paternoster Row, near Cheapside.
"Within the space of two years you will see in its fulness the Doctrine of the New Church predicted by the Lord in the Apocalypse, chapters xxi and xxii.
B.
PREFACE TO SWEDENBORG'S "DOCTRINE OF THE LORD"*
* See "Doctrina Nov Hierosolym de Domino," Amsterdam, 1763.
"A few years ago the following five works were published: 1. Heaven and Hell; 2. Doctrine of the New Jerusalem; 3. The Last Judgment 4. The White Horse; 5. The Planets and Earths in the Universe. In these works many things hitherto unknown, were discovered. Now, by the command of the Lord, who has revealed himself to me, the following works are to be published:
"The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the Lord.
"The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the Sacred Scripture.
"The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, from the precepts of the Decalogue.
"The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting Faith.
"Continuation concerning the Last Judgment.
"Angelic Wisdom respecting the Divine Providence.
"Angelic Wisdom respecting the Divine Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Infinity, end Eternity.*
* Respecting the promised treatise on "Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Infinity," &c., see Document 234, III, p. 261.
"Angelic Wisdom respecting the Divine Love and Wisdom.
"Angelic Wisdom respecting Life.*
* The promised treatise respecting "Life" is no doubt the treatise on Charity, which was left by Swedenborg in MS., and which has since been printed under the title, "The Doctrine of Charity."
"It is said 'The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem,' but thereby is understood the Doctrine for the New Church which is to be established by the Lord at the present day; for the Old Church has arrived at its end, as may appear from those things which have been said in the work on 'The Last Judgment,' nos. 33 to 39, and which will be discussed more fully in the succeeding works which have been mentioned above. That by the New Jerusalem, foretold in the Revelation, chap. xxi, as to be established after the Judgment, is understood a New Church, may be seen in the last chapter of the following work [i. e. the Doctrine of the Lord]."
DOCUMENT 285.
SWEDENBORG'S WORK ON "THE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD."
Among the papers and MSS. left by the Society Pro Fide et Charitate, which existed in Sweden from 1795 till about 1835, the editor of these documents found in 1869 a letter dated London, Nov. 1, 1814, which was addressed by a Swedish gentleman living in London to G. Bilberg (see Note 119), the secretary of the above-named society. In this letter the following passage occurs:
"Mr. Tulk233 requests the Society in Stockholm to communicate to him either directly, or through the writer of the letter, their ideas about the first work which Swedenborg wrote after his revelation in 1743, entitled, De Cultu et Amore Dei, published in 1745. He believes, as does also the Rev. Mr. Clowes,218 who is the most enlightened man in England in Swedenborg's doctrine, and who has translated all his writings into English, that it contains a genuine description of the creation, especially as Dr. Beyer frequently quotes it in his 'Index,' of which Swedenborg no doubt was aware. Mr. Tulk's own words on the subject are as follows: 'Dr. Beyer has included this work in his references in his 'Index Initialis.' Now we have reason to think that his Index was made with the knowledge and approbation of Swedenborg, and if so, Emanuel Swedenborg must have known of the insertion of the De Cultu, &c. in the work by Beyer. We wish therefore that you yourself, or some kind friend, would inquire of the friends in Stockholm, and discover if possible Dr. Beyer's sentiments upon it, which he may possibly have left in writing or otherwise transmitted orally, as the decisive opinion of Swedenborg upon it.
The De Cultu, &c., was published in 1745, two years after his revelations, and before he published the first volume of the Arcana, which was in 1749.'" The Swedish gentleman continues to G. Bilberg, "If you or any one else can furnish some light on this subject, it would be most welcome to the Messrs. Tulk and the friends in London, who are particularly engaged upon that work at present."
The following answer of G. Bilberg to Mr. Tulk was found among the papers: "Dr. E-m has told me that you wish to know our opinion respecting the truth of the work De Cultu et Amore Dei. I am able to tell you on the authority of Christian Johansen,260 who interrogated Swedenborg himself on this subject, that he obtained from him the following answer: 'It was certainly founded on truth, but that somewhat of egotism had introduced itself into it, as he had made a playful use in it of the Latin language, on account of his having been ridiculed for the simplicity of his Latin style in later years. For this reason he did not regard it as equal to his other works.'"
DOCUMENT 286.
FATE OF THE CONFISCATED COPIES OF THE WORK ON "CONJUGIAL LOVE."*
* See Document 245, H. p. 306.
LETTER OF CHRISTIAN JOHANSEN260 TO C. J. BENZELIUS.99*
* The original of this letter is preserved in the Cathedral-Library of Linköping, among the letters of Bishop C. J. Benzelius.
"Right Reverend Doctor and Bishop,
"Our Pastor, Magister Stahre, conveyed to me your friendly greeting, and said that you would like to know whether I had any copies of the work of Swedenborg which had been confiscated in Norrkping several years ago.
"First of all I thank you most humbly for the friendly greeting you have sent me; and with respect to the books for which you enquire, I am able to give you the following information:
"Fifty copies of Swedenborg's work De Amore Conjugiali, were, through the instigation of Bishop Filenius, confiscated at the custom-house of Norrkping, during the Diet which was held there in 1769. I know that they were well taken of by the custom-house officials in that place. Some time afterwards, I think in the year 1780, a connoisseur of those writings came across a number of copies of that book in a grocery shop in Stockholm, where they were being used as wrapping paper. The inference was that they were possibly the copies which were confiscated in Norrkping, and which were released after the death of Bishop Filenius. The same connoisseur purchased quite a number of these copies at the grocery shop, and let me have six copies in exchange for another still rarer work. I have since disposed of these copies in such a manner, that I have none left to give away. But as I have of the same work a bound duplicate copy, I take the liberty of offering it to you in all humility, and requesting you to give it a place in your library. I send it to you for this purpose. I must beg you, however, to excuse the injured condition of the first leaf; it was so when I first received it. The name which is written on the title-page shows that it was formerly owned by a distinguished and learned gentleman.
"I take the liberty of enclosing copies of some of Swedenborg's letters, together with a supplication addressed to the King [Document 245], which throw light upon the confiscation of the books.
"With your permission I might say much in favour of these writings; but in your enlightened eyes they speak for themselves.
"In conclusion I desire only to continue in your favour, and to have the honour of remaining, with all due reverence,
"Your most humble servant,
"CHRISTIAN JOHANSEN.
"Eskilstuna, November 1, 1785.
"To the Doctor and Bishop C. J. Benzelius."
DOCUMENT 287.
PRESERVATION FROM FIRE OF SWEDENBORG'S "APOCALYPSIS EXPLICATA."
Robert Hindmarsh,225 in his "History of the Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church" (pp. 32 et seq.) relates as follows:
"A remarkable circumstance worthy of being recorded, took place while I was printing the first volume of the Apocalypsis Explicata in 1785. Mr. Peckitt,229 as one of the Editors, had in his possession the manuscript of the second volume, containing from the 7th to the 11th chapters inclusive. By some accident a fire broke out in his neighbourhood at midnight, which soon extended its ravages to his house. In the alarm and confusion in such cases, the firemen and others endeavoured to save whatever property came first to their hands; but while in the act of performing so dangerous an office, the house fell in, and covered them with its ruins; from which, however, they were afterwards extricated without much injury. Mr. Peckitt himself, who assisted in the removal of his goods, till the flames compelled him to quit the house, narrowly escaped with his life; and it was not till the next morning, when the agitation of his mind was somewhat abated, that he bethought himself of the manuscript volume of the Apocalypsis Explicata; which he now concluded must have been burnt, with the immense multitude of other books which were consumed. What added to his distress was the recollection, that the manuscript was in his desk in the parlour, and that desk was destroyed.
"Early on the next morning he visited the ruins, yet with slender hopes of recovering what he now considered as the most valuable jewel which had been in his possession, and consequently as the most serious loss which had befallen him.
But his search was in vain neither desk nor book was to be found. Soon after, one of the neighbours (Mr. William Yarnold, a coal merchant, of No. 16 Soho Square,) informed Mr. Peckitt, that he had picked up several books in the street in course of the preceding night, and had taken them to his own house, in order to preserve them in safety. Entertaining a faint hope, that the Latin manuscript was among the books so preserved, Mr. Peckitt immediately accompanied him to his house, where he actually found the very volume in question, which did not appear to have sustained the smallest injury. On inquiry it was ascertained, that one of the firemen, in the midst of the general confusion, finding the desk too heavy to be easily removed, had opened it, and thrown its contents at random into the street, where the manuscript was taken up, as before observed.
"These particulars I had from Mr. Peckitt himself, who communicated the information in a very affecting manner. The Society was holding its usual meeting in the Temple a few evenings after the fire, and conversing on the calamity, which had been permitted to fall on one of the worthiest members of its body, when Mr. Peckitt entered the room with the lost and recovered volume under his arm, and throwing it on the table, burst into a flood of tears, being unable for a few moments to give any other bind of utterance to his feelings. When restored to his self-possession, 'There,' said he, 'the greatest treasure which I had in my house is preserved in safety; and for the sake of that, I willingly submit to my great loss.' He then gave the particulars as above related. His library consisted of many thousand volumes in every branch of science, which had been accumulating for some years; besides a rare collection of mystical books, to which he was known to be very partial, before his acquaintance with the writings of Swedenborg. But these latter had already considerably weakened his attachment to the mystic authors; and the loss which he now sustained by the fire had the happy effect of weaning his mind still more from their abstruse and erroneous sentiments. The books consumed on this occasion could not have been less, it is said, than a full waggon-load."
DOCUMENT 288.
INFORMATION COLLECTED BY A SWEDISH BIOGRAPHER OF SWEDENBORG.*
* The life of Swedenborg, from which the above information was collected, appeared in a biographical journal (Biographisk Tidskrift), which was published in Upsal in 1820, under the title, "Samtidens Mrkvrdigaste Personer" (The most celebrated persons of modern times). Swedenborg's biography which, as the author states, is partly based on oral communications, extends from page 118 to 154.
1. "Swedenborg's recreation from his serious labours consisted in his taking care of his garden; and there with his pious child-like mind he especially attached himself to Flora's variegated and beautifully coloured children; and I had occasion to see one of Swedenborg's almanacs for the year 1750, where with the same preciseness, as if it had been the beginning or close of some profound treatise, he marked down, when he had planted an auricula or a pink, the time when they bloomed, how much seed he had gathered of them, and so forth" (p. 124).
2. "According to the custom of his times, Swedenborg wore the customary wig on his head, yet it was not too long; the rest of his body was usually covered by a long light-blue or greyish velvet coat, with an under-garment of black taffeta, and stockings and shoes with large buckles of gold. He was well received in every society; for he was fond of talking, and spoke well and wittily, without introducing any of his peculiar ideas, which he would never force on any one. He conversed much on scientific and political subjects, and was especially much interested in the proceedings of the Diet of his country, even after he had ceased to take any part in them, and his judgment in these matters was always sure, quick, and to the point" (p. 149).
DOCUMENT 289.
PROFESSOR SCHERER'S261 ANECDOTE ABOUT SWEDENBORG.
In Volume IV of his edition of the "Documents concerning Swedenborg," Dr. Immanuel Tafel communicates the following letter of a friend, the late Rev. Mr. Moser, clergyman at Ochsenburg in Würtemberg, addressed to himself:*
* An English translation of this letter, with Dr. Tafel's remarks, appeared in the "Intellectual Repository" for 1846, p. 99, whence it was introduced into the appendix to the English edition of the Swedenborg Documents, published in 1855, pp. 67 to 72.
"My dear friend,
"Amongst the external proofs for the credibility of the spiritual revelations of Swedenborg, I do not find in the writings you have already edited that remarkable prediction of Swedenborg's, for the communication of which we are indebted to the late Dr. Scherer,261 Professor of the French and English languages in our University [Tübingen]. This prediction most justly deserves to be placed by the side of those other remarkable occurrences, such as those relating to Queen Louisa Ulrica, Madame de Marteville, and the fire in Stockholm, &c., which are often alleged as proofs of Swedenborg's communication with the world of spirits. As the occurrence in question appears to have escaped your memory, permit me, that it may be inserted in your magazine, to relate it verbatim, so as to bring it to your remembrance; at the same time, I must leave it to your exertions, by further investigations in Sweden, to establish its truth.
"It was during the period of our studies at the University [Tübingen], between the years 1818 and 1821, that it came to our knowledge that the said Professor Scherer had resided, during Swedenborg's time, in Stockholm, as secretary or attach to an embassy, and that he had probably come to know Swedenborg personally.
We were, consequently, both induced to visit the Professor, and to ascertain from him what he had to communicate respecting Swedenborg personally, respecting remarkable bets recorded of him, and also respecting the reception of his doctrines and visions in Sweden. The Professor, who was greatly advanced in years, then told us, that 'in Stockholm, in all companies, very much was said concerning the spirit-seer Swedenborg, and wonderful things were recorded respecting his intercourse with spirits and angels. But the judgment pronounced concerning him was various. Some gave full credit to his visions; other passed them by as incomprehensible; and others rejected them as fanatical, but he himself [Scherer] had never been able to believe them. Swedenborg, however, on account of his excellent character, was universally held in high estimation.'
"Amongst other things Professor Scherer related the following remarkable occurrence:--'Swedenborg was one evening in company in Stockholm, when, after his information about the world of spirits had been heard with the greatest attention, they put; him to the proof as to the credibility of his extraordinary spiritual communications. The test was this:-"He should state, which of the company would die first;" Swedenborg did not refuse to answer this question, but after some time, in which he appeared to be in profound and silent meditation, he quite openly replied,-"Olof Olofsohn will die to-morrow morning at forty-five minutes past four o'clock." By this predictive declaration, which was pronounced by Swedenborg with all confidence, the company were placed in anxious expectation, and a gentleman who was a friend of Olof Olofsohn, resolved to go on the following morning, at the time mentioned by Swedenborg, to the house of Olofsohn, to see whether Swedenborg's prediction was fulfilled. On the way thither he met the well-known servant of Olofsohn, who told him that his master had just then died; a fit of apoplexy had seized him, and had suddenly put an end to his life. Upon which the gentleman, through the evidence of the death which really occurred [according to the prediction], was convinced.
At the same time this particular circumstance also attracted attention;Bthe clock in Olofsohn's dwelling apartment stopped at the very minute in which he had expired, and the hand pointed to the time.'
"This, my dear friend, is the account which, together with you, if you can remember it I heard from the mouth of Professor Scherer himself, and which has sunk sufficiently deeply into my memory to enable me to pledge myself for the truth of this narrative."
"This testimony," adds Dr. Im. Tafel, "is so much the more important, as Professor Scherer not only did not believe in Swedenborg's revelations, but, as he [Dr. Im. Tafel] well remembers, was much opposed to them, and also endeavoured to influence both him and Moser against them. Whether Professor Scherer himself was present in the company alluded to, they know not; he could, however, have examined there and then all things respecting the occurrence, and as far as Dr. Im. Tafel remembers, the Professor had spoken with Swedenborg himself [about it]."
DOCUMENT 290.
PROFESSOR ATTERBOM'S262 ANECDOTE RESPECTING SWEDENBORG.
In the first volume of s work entitled, Siare och Skalder (Seers and Poets), which contains a long essay upon Swedenborg, Prof. Atterbom says as follows:*
*See "Siare och Skalder," Second Edition, rebro, 1862, Vol. I, pp. 52-54. A German translation of this anecdote was printed by Dr. Im. Tafel in Vol. IV of his "Swedenborg Documents," pp. 337 to 341.
"We cannot refrain from relating one anecdote respecting Swedenborg's faculty of seeing spirits, since none of those which have hitherto been known, described in so naive a manner the mode peculiar to himself, and which has not yet been explained, of living at the same time in nature and above nature.
The subject of this anecdote is a distinguished scholar from Finland, who during the whole of his life believed too little rather than too much.* This scholar, a short time after receiving his degree of master of arts, set out on a journey abroad, and came to London, while Swedenborg was residing there, as was generally the case during the latter years of his life. Although he was far from being a Swedenborgian, and looked upon the far-famed spirit-seer rather in the light of an arch-fanatic, he still thought he ought to call Upon the wonderful old man; and he was prompted to do so not only by curiosity, but also by a feeling of grateful esteem for a man who in every thing else was a shining light of northern erudition, and a pattern of moral excellence. On arriving at the house where Swedenborg lived, he was ushered into a saloon by a friendly old man-servant, who went into an inner room to announce the stranger, but who very soon appeared again with a message that his master was engaged at present with another visitor, whose visit, however, he thought would not last very long; he, therefore, asked the gentleman to take a chair and wait a little while; whereupon he left him alone in the saloon. As the chair he occupied happened to be near the door into the inner room, he could not avoid hearing a lively conversation which was going on there between some parties walking up and down the room, in consequence whereof he heard alternately the mere sound of the conversation at a distance, and again as they approached towards him he heard distinctly every word. He noticed that the conversation was in Latin, and concerned some Roman antiquities; and as he himself was an excellent Latin scholar, and very well acquainted with the antiquities which were discussed, after he had mode this discovery, he could not help listening attentively to the conversation. He was somewhat strangely affected, when during the whole of the time, he heard only one voice talking, sometimes after a longer, and then again after a shorter pause, during which the speaker seemed to have obtained an answer, and in the answer a cause for renewed questions.
He took it for granted that the person whose voice he heard was Swedenborg himself; and he noticed that the old gentleman seemed highly pleased with his visitor. It was impossible for him, however, to learn who the visitor was, the only thing he could discover being that the conversation concerned some matters and some persons in Rome during the time of the Emperor Augustus; and particulars were mentioned to which he listened with increasing interest, as they were entirely new to himself. But while he was more and more carried away by the subject itself, and was entirely forgetting the strange circumstances connected therewith, the door was opened, and Swedenborg, whom he recognized by his portraits and the descriptions he had received of him, stepped into the saloon with a countenance beaming with joy. He beckoned to the visitor who hall just arrived with a friendly nod, but merely in passing; for his chief attention was directed to the invisible being, which he amid repeated bows accompanied through the room to the opposite door, flowing Latin, and beginning it son to pay him another visit. Upon re-entering the room immediately afterwards, he at once approached his new visitor, and after vigorously shaking his hand, addressed him thus, 'Welcome with all my heart, my learned friend, excuse my having made you wait; but, as you perceived, I had a visitor.' The visitor was astonished and perplexed, and said, 'Yes, I perceived it." Swedenborg; 'Can you guess who it was.'-- 'Impossible.'--'Just think of it, it was Virgil; and I can tell you, he is a capital and most agreeable man. I always had a good opinion of him, and he deserves it. Be is as modest as he is witty, and entertaining in a most amiable manner.'-'Such has always been my idea of Virgil.'--'You are quite right; and he is still the same. You are probably aware that in early youth I was much occupied with Roman literature, and that I composed some Carmina, which I had printed at Skara.'--'I know it, and they are much esteemed by all. Connoisseurs.' 'I am glad of it; and it matters not that they concern my first love. Many years, many different studies, occupations, and thoughts lie between that time and the present.
But Virgil's unexpected visit awakened many youthful recollections; and as I found him so very polite and communicative, I resolved to improve the opportunity by asking him for information on some circumstances, which no one could explain better than himself. He promised also to visit me soon again. But let talk about something else. It is so long since I met any one from Sweden, and especially a young academician. Come in and sit down with me. What can I do for you? But first of all tell me all about home, both things old and new.'
* The "Biografiskt Lexicon," Vol. XVI, p. 338, declares that this Finish scholar was [H. G.] Porthan (see Note 266).
"'After this,' continued the witness and reporter of the above to a familiar friend, from whose lips I heard the whole story, 'after this, during the whole of my intercourse with this wonderful old man, whom I afterwards visited at various times, I heard nothing extraordinary from him; except proofs of his extraordinary learning in ah branches of human science and investigation. Never again did he touch upon anything supernatural, anything visionary. However disturbed in mind he appeared to me at first, I left him with a feeling of the deepest gratitude, as well for his highly instructive conversation, as for the constant benevolence he evinced towards me, both in word and deed; and I also left him with a sense of the greatest admiration, which, however, was blended with a feeling of regret that, on a certain point, a screw was either loose or had dropped out of the head of this venerable man."
Atterbom himself continues, "This anecdote is remarkable because it presents Swedenborg at a juncture when a visitor called upon him in the usual way, while he was entertaining a spiritual visitor. A circumstance which explains why he, who ordinally was not at all communicative on such matters, taken here by surprise and under the full influence of Virgil's amiability, forgot completely how strange it must have appeared to his young visitor. Otherwise he observed strict silence on the subject of his spirit-visions; and especially in conversing with such as he found of a profane disposition, or simple in their judgment. Gjörwell's description of his conversation with Swedenborg furnishes a proof of this. When such persons endeavoured to cross-examine him, he directed them to his writings, assuring them that 'everything contained therein is strictly true."
If they objected that they could not possibly believe this, he answered, 'I do not wonder at it,' and therewith changed the topic of conversation. The above account also shows, that he soon relapsed again into his usual silence in respect to the phenomena of his interior world."
What are we, to think of this account? Can it be strictly true? A friend from Sweden informed us that Atterbom's friends did not consider this story altogether trustworthy. Without pretending to deny the truth of the whole story, we wish to call attention to the following points, which are not borne out by the testimony concerning Swedenborg which we know to be reliable.
First, Swedenborg's lodgings in London were exceedingly modest (see Document 265, no. 8), and did not contain a "saloon" of the kind mentioned by the Finnish gentleman; nor did Swedenborg have a "friendly old man-servant," but was waited upon by the "maid" of the Shearsmiths (see Document 264, no. 10).
Secondly, When Swedenborg's spiritual sight was opened, he was as to his natural body generally in a deep trance (see Document 5, no. 25, and also Document 257, p. 490); and he is nowhere else described as walking about in that state and entertaining his spiritual visitors in the natural world.
Thirdly, Swedenborg sometimes, when in a spiritual state, soliloquized, and especially when in temptation he is said to have spoken freely in his vernacular tongue (see Document 5, nos. 24, 29, and also Document 267, no. 5); yet his conversation was like that of some one speaking in sleep, his sphere of consciousness being altogether in the spiritual world, and not in the natural and in the spiritual world at the same time, as related in Atterbom's anecdote. For, according to Atterbom, Swedenborg must have seen, at the same time, the Finnish gentleman in the natural world and Virgil in the spiritual world, and thus his spiritual and his natural eyes must have been open at the same time; since he is said to have "beckoned with a friendly nod" to the former, while he made "obliging speeches" to Virgil, and "bowed him out of his room."
Fourthly, It is scarcely likely that Virgil, after progressing in the spiritual world for eighteen hundred years-and he must have progressed there, if he was such "a capital and amiable man"--and after becoming interested in the affairs of the spiritual world for such long time, should have discussed "Roman antiquities" with Swedenborg; and, again, it is just as unlikely that Swedenborg, who had so many more important things to attend to, should have made inquiries respecting such small and comparatively unimportant matters.
Fifthly, According to Atterbom the Carmina which Swedenborg published at Skara treated of his "first love," when yet there is not a single piece in that collection which treats on such a subject.
Sixthly, according to Atterbom Swedenborg "observed strict silence on the subject of his spirit visions," when yet it is a well-known fact that he freely conversed with most of his visitors on this topic. See Documents 249; 250, no. 7; 253, B; 255, nos. 6, 7; 256, A, no. 15, F, no. 2; 267, no. 6, &c.
From these considerations it appears that we cannot place implicit confidence in the whole of the above account, but must regard some parts of it at least as of doubtful authority.
DOCUMENT 291.
SUNDRY ANECDOTES RESPECTING SWEDENBORG.
1. In a work called "Abrg des ouvrages d'Em. Swdenborg," published in Stockholm and Strassbourg in 1788, we find on page XIX of the preface the following anecdote:
"An inhabitant of Strassbourg, a man worthy of trust and a friend of Swedenborg, related to us that while in Paris he engaged a man-servant for him. The servant complained that his master left all his doors unlocked, and said that he would be accused of theft, which certainly could not fail to occur from such carelessness.
Swedenborg however smilingly told him 'to remain easy;' that 'he did not know what a good guardian he had at his door.' His door really remained unlocked, and he never lost anything."
2. The following anecdote was communicated to the editor of these documents at the Royal Library in Stockholm by G. Swederus,265 a literary gentleman of high standing:
"An old lady, whose maiden name was Hellstedt, related the following occurrence of her early childhood: When four years old she took a walk one Sunday afternoon with her parents from Kungsbaken (the third part of a geographical mile) to Swedenborg's property in Hornsgatan, in order to visit his garden. This was open to the public, but not to children whose unruly manners displeased this remarkable man. At the entrance to the garden, which is preserved at the present day, the gardener gave the family to understand, that they could not enter on account of the child's being with them.* But Swedenborg, who was at some distance from them in one of the garden walks, called out to the gardener to open the gate, as the child was so strictly trained to obedience that she would do no harm. The little girl thought this remark quite natural, because she knew it to be true; but later in life she wondered how Swedenborg could have known it, as her family lived at a great distance in the northern part of the town, and was not in the habit of visiting the southern portion."
* Cfr. Document 292, p. 734.
3. The following anecdote was sent to the editor of these documents by Madame A. F. Ehrenborg,110 Linköping, in a letter dated January 18, 1869:
"The widow of Professor Risell of Upsal, daughter of Bishop Halenius44 of Skara, related as follows: When quite a child she and her brothers came up to Stockholm in the year 1767, in order to be present at their father's funeral. One day the children were asked to dine at one of their father's friends, who lived in the southern part of the town. While walking up Hornsgatan they were overtaken by a violent shower of rain, from which they sought refuge in the hall of a house. Here an elderly gentleman came cheerfully towards them, and told them that they were very welcome.
This gentleman was Emanuel Swedenborg. And when the elder brother of the wife of Professor Risell, who was then a mere boy, stepped forward to tell him why they entered his house, and that they were the children of Bishop Halenius, Swedenborg interrupted the lad by saying, 'I know it already, for your father has just been with me, and has told me that you were coming.' He then asked them to step into his room; and after conversing with him for about an hour, until the rain stopped, they continued on their way."
4. Madame A. A. De Frese, wife of the late Captain Carl Georg De Frese, and grand-daughter of the Manufacturer Bolander of Gottenburg, mentioned in the following account, told the editor of these documents during his stay in Stockholm in 1869, the following anecdote:
"In a large company assembled in Gottenburg about 1770 in honour of Swedenborg, there was present the Manufacturer (Fabrikr) Bolander, who was the owner of very extensive cloth-mills. During dinner Swedenborg suddenly turned to Mr. Bolander, and said to him sharply: 'Sir, you had better go to your mills!' Mr. Bolander was very much surprised at the tone of voice in which Swedenborg spoke to him, and thought it anything but polite; but he rose nevertheless from the table, and went to his mills. On arriving there he found that a large piece of cloth had fallen down near the furnace, and had commenced burning. If he had delayed but a little longer, he would have found his property in ashes. After removing the danger, Mr. Bolander returned to the company and expressed his thanks to Swedenborg, telling him what had happened. Swedenborg smiled, and said that he had seen the danger, and also that there was no time to be lost, wherefore he had addressed him thus abruptly."
5. In the biographical sketch of Emanuel Swedenborg, written by Baron Beskow,263 the Secretary of the Swedish Academy, and read before that body on January 24, 1859, we find the following anecdote communicated to the author by one of his friends, And. Fryxell:254*
* See "Svenska Akademiens Handlingar" (Transactions of the Swedish Academy), for the year 1859, p. 215.
"Fryxell relates: 'My grandmother, Sara Greta Askbom, who was married to Anders Ekman, councillor of commerce and burgomaster, had grown up in the neighbourhood of Bjrngrdstan in the Sdermalm, where her father lived not far from Swedenborg, with whom he had frequent intercourse. The pretty maiden, only fifteen or sixteen years old, had often asked 'Uncle' Swedenborg to show her a spirit or an angel. At last he consented, and leading her to a summer-house in his garden, he placed her before a curtain that had been lowered, and then said, 'Now you shall see an angel;' and as he spoke, he drew up the curtain, when the maiden beheld herself reflected in a mirror.
6. Dr. Kahl was told by a trustworthy gentleman (a fide digno viro) the following anecdote, which he relates in his Narratiuncul, &c. p. 15, and also in the "Nya Kyrkan," &c., Part II, p. 13:
"One day a certain prelate, Archbishop Troilus,259 whose greatest pleasure consisted in playing the game of trestt,* and who had lately lost one of his gambling friends, Erland Broman,167 met Swedenborg a short time after Broman's death in a large company,** where he wished to amuse himself and the rest of the company at Swedenborg's expense. He asked him therefore in a jocular tone, 'By the bye, assessor, tell us something about the spirit-world. How does my friend Broman spend his time there?' Swedenborg answered instantly, 'I saw him but a few hours ago shuffling his cards in the company of the evil one, and he was only wanting for your worship to make up a game of tresett.' The conversation between the Archbishop and Swedenborg was thus brought to a close, and it is not difficult to see which of the two became the subject of the company's mirth."
* A game of cards much played in former times.
** According to Anrep, Erland Broman died in 1757. From 1757 to 1759 Swedenborg was abroad, and as it appears from Document 249, that the fact of his having intercourse with spirits was not generally known until the beginning of 1760, the occurrence related by Dr. Kahl probably took place in that year.
DOCUMENT 292.
SWEDENBORG AND HIS GARDENER-FOLKS.*
* See Uncle Adam's "Altartaflan," Part II, pp. 457 to 467. An English translation by the editor of these "Documents" was printed in the New Jerusalem Messenger for 1869, and in the year following it was reprinted in San Francisco, California, in the form of a neat pamphlet. A German translation from the English version appeared afterwards in the "Bote der Neuen Kirche," which was then published in Baltimore, America.
The following incident in Swedenborg's life, based upon oral traditions, is narrated by Dr. Wetterberg264 (Uncle Adam), in one of his interesting volumes, written for the instruction and entertainment of the Swedish people. The title of the little work is Altartaflan (Altar Pictures), in which the author passes many beautiful and instructive pictures of Swedish life and history before his readers, making a father explain them to his son. It is the son, however, who sees these pictures in a vision or dream, and, his father afterwards explains them to him.
The son, whose name is Alfred Berndtson, first relates the following:
"I saw a large peasant's house, with a dark, pointed roof; under the roof there were suspended long poles with bread, as is the custom in Swedish peasant houses. It seemed to me, however, as if it were not a common peasant's house, although the furniture, the open fireplace with the burning logs, surrounded by men carving wood, and women spinning, indicated that it was really a peasant's house. An old man was sitting on a three-legged stool, and seemed to be resting himself, surrounded by his servants. Suddenly a young man entered the house, went towards the old man, reached out his hand to him, and said, 'Do you know, father, Jesper has been ordained a priest?'
The old man folded his hands, and said, 'May God grant that this was done in a blessed hour; Jesper has a difficult office.' Then this vision disappeared. Soon another took its place; and I saw two pictures. In one of them was a venerable, grave, but mild men, dressed in a bishop's garb, and laying his hands upon the curly head of a boy. The boy looked up with his clear penetrating eyes, as if he had asked something to which he expected an answer. There was inspiration in his look. In the other picture there was a peasant, who went over his field sowing; and at one end of the field there sat a boy reading a book. But soon these pictures disappeared, and I saw nothing more."
The father looked smilingly upon his son during this narration, and at its close he said: "This is a legend from olden times. If I am not mistaken, you have been at our old homestead, with Daniel Isaksson, in Sweden, near Fahlun. I know this well, partly from our family history, as it has been told to me, and partly from other sources. You see, Alfred, Daniel Isaksson was an honest miner--half peasant and half miner; he was joint owner of several blasting furnaces, which were run at common expense, according to the old mining usage which gave each of the stockholders the blasting of a certain number of days. The young farmer who came in and reached out his hand to the old man was my grandfather, Isak Danielsson, and Jesper, who became a priest, was his brother Jesper Swedberg. You saw him afterwards as bishop, and the inquiring boy at his knees, with the look of inspiration, was Emanuel Swedenborg. The peasant sowing was again my grandfather, and the boy who sat at one end of the field was my father; he also became a priest, and called himself 'Danielius, which I have changed into Danieli."
"We are then of the same stock as the noble seer," said Alfred.
"Yes, Alfred. When strange thoughts pass through my soul, and I speak as it were not from my own mind, then I think to myself, 'This is in our family.' There is something that has not yet been cleared up in the heart of our family, a sort of family disease. I cannot call it by any other name, for it is something so uncommon.
But enough of this, Alfred. There are strange thoughts among them, and presentiments which are quite surprising: but 'this is in our family.'"
Alfred smiled, and said: "It is in the whole human family."
"Yes, certainly, there is a great deal in man of which we know nothing; there are faculties in him that none of us suspect. So, for instance, the savage in Africa sees the water flowing deep under the surface of the earth; he says, 'Here is water;' and on digging far down it is found. This is neither sight, nor smell, nor hearing; and get it is some kind of sense, however it may be called; and it is a sense of which we know nothing in Europe, and in the essence of which a civilized and enlightened human being starves to death, a few feet from the spring that might save him."
"But, father, did you never in your youth see Swedenborg and talk with him?" said Alfred.
"No, my son; only once during the lifetime of this remarkable man was my father in Stockholm; but Swedenborg was at that time in England, where he frequently resided, and we did not meet him. We visited the house which he owned in the Sdermalm. I was then a mere boy, but I recollect it as well as if it had happened only to-day. My fancy was very much excited, and I expected to find the place where this wonderful man resided something between a church and a burying vault.
"My father, although he was an orthodox priest, had nevertheless also a tendency to mysticism. But he laboured as much as possible against this bias of his nature, and in his anxiety to overcome it he went farther than he otherwise would have done. In consequence of this, he always described Swedenborg to me as a sort of visionary, and his doctrine as thoroughly un-Christian and without any foundation. Yet, in spite of all this, I noticed that these prejudices were merely a thin veil, under which there lay concealed a feeling of deep veneration for this uncommonly gifted man. Children, generally, have this faculty of seeing through the shell to the kernel. And it is this which often renders them familiar and unrestrained in the company of a stern old man, and in tumbling up his gray locks; when, on the other hand, they will hide away in a corner when I smooth-tongued, courteous man of the world desires to flatter them.
We can always rest assured that children will gather around a man who loves them, though he may not have expressed his fondness by a single word. In short, I saw through my good old father, how his words belied his inner feeling; and this contradiction increased my curiosity to know something of our absent kinsman, who, it seemed to me, was himself a sort of spirit-being.
"But he was not at home; the little building in which he used to live was in the rear of a large garden, full of berry-bushes and fruit-trees. How simple and unassuming was this house! Nothing like the enchanted castle in the Arabian Nights, which I had pictured to myself. Instead of the castle, I found a one-story dwelling-house, with a few dark rooms; and instead of an enchanted dwarf, there came out a cheerful, friendly little woman, who asked whether we wished to see the assessor's room.
"When the good old woman learned that we were distantly related to her assessor, the band of her tongue was loosened, and she related to us a little story, which I have never seen in print, and which, perhaps better than anything else, characterizes Swedenborg as a man. 'Yes' said the little old woman, 'people judge without seeing, and this almost cost me and Andersson our places. You see my old man who goes yonder, raking the flower-beds; it almost cast us our whole happiness.'
"How so," asked my father.
"You know, dear pastor, there were so many among our friends who said to me, 'You ought not to serve in Swedenborg's house, for he is no Christian,' they said. Now, the truth is, that then, as now, we thought ever so much of our assessor, but when I heard that he had not the true faith which leads to blessedness, I began to doubt whether it was right to in his house. It was a hard struggle, for I thought as much of the assessor as of my own father; and so I lay many a night weeping bitterly that the assessor was not a Christian, and praying for the salvation of his soul. I really fretted myself ill out of mere sorrow, for you see my friends worried me so much, and insisted that I should leave house of this heathen, who did not believe in Christ, for so they said.
At last Andersson noticed that I no longer ate or drank, and wanted to know the cause, and begged so hard that I told him all. Yes, Andersson is a good man, and he always believes me rather than himself; and so he also began to worry."
"But if I should tell the whole story in her words," said Danieli, "it would make it too long: and so I shall relate more briefly what happened."
One day the old man and the old woman, the modest gardener-folks, dressed in their holiday suits, entered Swedenborg's silent study, the room with the brown panel-paintings, the gable windows, and a view out on the lilac-bushes. Swedenborg sat, with his head resting upon both hands, poring over a large book. Astonished at the unusual noise, he raised his head and looked towards the door. There stood the good gardener-folks, though but the middle of the week, both dressed in their holiday clothes, bowing and courtesying. On Swedenborg's grave but cheerful countenance there played an inquiring smile.
"Why dressed up so, Andersson and Margaret?" he said. "What do you want?"
This was not in truth easy to say, and instead of an answer, Margaret began to cry, and her husband crushed his hat into a thousand wrinkles, and in his heart wished himself more than a thousand miles away.
"Is there any care that lies upon your heart, any distress which has suddenly come over you?" said Swedenborg; "then speak out plainly, and, with God's help, it will all go well again."
"Yes," at last said the old gardener, "yes, we wish to leave the assessor's service."
Swedenborg seemed surprised. "Leave me; and why?" he asked, with his penetrating, friendly look, which pierced them to their very heart; "I thought as we were growing old together, we should to our very end remain faithful to one another, and never separate in this life."
"Yes, so also we thought ourselves," burst out the housewife, almost overcome with tears "for thirty years we have served you, and I thought it would be God's pleasure that we should die in your garden, and under your eyes; but, but--"
"Speak out, woman; what lies so heavily upon your heart? I know that both of you think a great deal of me. Is it not so?"
"Yes, before God it is so said both of them together.
"Speak out then, said Swedenborg, with a smile, "and then we may be able to help the matter."
The housewife, whose strong emotion gave her courage to speak, and words to express her thoughts, at last began. "Yes, people say me ought not to serve you any longer, because you are not a right Christian."
"Nothing else, my good woman," said Swedenborg quietly; "nothing else? Well, let the world judge so; but why should you think so?"
"You see you never go to church; for years you have never been inside St. Mary's Church."
"Have you never read," replied Swedenborg, solemnly, "that where two or three are gathered together in the Lord's name, that there is His church and meeting place? Do you believe that it is the steeple and copper roof which make a holy place of it? Do you believe that it is holy for any one else but him who has in his heart Christ's church? Do you believe that it is the walls, organ, and pulpit, which constitute its holiness?"
"No, no; I know that well enough."
"Well, then, here at home, in this room, in the arbour, in the garden, wherever a man or spirit lives within or without space and time, wherever a prayer is either thought or read, wherever a voice of thanksgiving is sent up to Him who is the Giver of all good, there is His church; and it is consequently here where I live sheltered from the world."
Both the faithful servants bowed their heads and said, "But this is not the way of the world."
"The way of the world, my friends?" replied Swedenborg, "I suppose the way of the world is Christian, is it not?"
"Yes, it is."
"In name it is, but not in spirit and in truth. Faith without works is a dead faith; a flower which does not live is nothing but lifeless dust; and faith which does not live in every action of man is a dead faith; it is no faith at all.
Here, my friends, see what this Christian world really does. They call, indeed, upon Him, the only Son, in their times of need, but they forget both His teaching and His life. Like an obstinate child who despises warning, they rush into all manner of lusts, into pride and wickedness, which are like a thin, frail covering over an abyss; and over this yawning abyss they scoff at their teacher, and act foolishly and madly until this covering breaks. Then they call out for help, but in vain, for they have long since forfeited it; sometimes they are dragged up again, but in their foolish pride they let go the saving hand, they spurn the healing repentance, and continue their course of vain talk and idle sport. So does the Christian world, and they think that all that is necessary for them is to have a priest to speak to them a few hours in the meek about God and the Saviour; and they do not think that any more is required of them than to hear and to forget. They therefore believe that it is outward gesture, the singing of psalms, and the tones of the organ, together with the empty sound of recited prayers, which penetrate to the Lord in heaven. Truly when the people prostrate themselves in the churches, then it is the voice of a few only that penetrates to the Lord.
"Let me tell you something. To-day there was a little child sitting in the street, a little blind girl, who folded her little hands upon her lap, and turned her darkened eyes towards heaven; and when I saw her, and asked her, 'What makes you look so happy, although you are blind?' the little girl said, 'I am thinking of God our Father, who will some day take me to Him, and show me all His splendour.' Truly, my good people, it was only at the corner of the street that she sat, yet I took off my hat, and bowed my head, for I knew that God was near, and that this was a holy place.
"No, there is a worm gnawing at the kernel of Christianity, although its shell is whole. Charity is the kernel, and the outward forms are the shell. Where do you see charity in this uncharitable world? As long as violence prevails and rules, as long as selfishness and avarice oppress mankind, as long as earthly happiness is the goal which we endeavour to reach, so long the world is not Christian.
But when men at all times and everywhere recognize that they are in God's presence and under His eyes; when each of their actions is the reflection of His eternal love and of His example; when their goal is placed beyond the reach of time, and not here in the dust, then only are men Christians. Do you know, my friends, what I have done? Nothing else than what was formerly done in Palestine. When the Christians were on the point of giving way, then the standard was thrown beyond, as a goal for them to follow, and thither they pressed over to the other side, and as they rushed they conquered. So also have I set up the goal for mankind, not only for their thoughts 'but also for their deeds, in another world, so as to let them know that it is not enough for them to gather themselves together, but also to struggle. Such, then, is my faith. If I believe more than others, I certainly do not believe less. And now, my friends, look back upon those thirty years during which you have followed me almost daily with your eyes, and then judge whether it is I or others who are Christian. Judge for yourselves. I submit myself to your judgment, and then do what you deem to be right."
He beckoned with his hand and they went away; and then quietly, as if nothing had happened, he continued his reading.
The next day they stood again, in their week-day clothes, in the presence of their master, who asked them with a friendly smile, "Well, how did the examination turn out?"
"Oh, master Assessor," said both of them, Awe looked for a single word, for a single action, which was not in agreement with what the Lord has commanded us, yet we could not find a single one."
"Very well," said Swedenborg; Abut it is not quite so; many thoughts have been, and many an action has been, not perfectly straight; yet I have tried to do as well as I could. And as a child, who in the beginning spells out his words, and stumbles often before he can read, provided he goes to work lovingly and cheerfully and strives hard to do better, is loved by his father, so also it may have been with me; at least I pray and hope that it may be so.
But you will remain with me?"
"Yes, master Assessor, until our death."
"Thank you, my friends; I knew it would be so. Let people say what they please about my teachings, but do you judge them by my life; if they agree, then all is right; but if there is the least disagreement between them, then one of the two must be wrong."
When the little old woman had finished her story, which she had told after the manner of her people, by constantly repeating "said the assessor," and "said I," her eyes were glistening with emotion, and she added, AGod, indeed, must have forsaken us when He allowed us to go astray so far as to suspect our own assessor of not being a Christian."
The good old woman took us through the garden, which was decked in its greatest autumnal splendour, and was loaded with berries and fruits; and as we were walking along, with a side glance at me, she said that the assessor never allowed children in his garden; Abut sometimes," she added, Ahe lets one or the other slip in, but not before he has looked at him, and has said, 'Let the child pass, he will not take anything without leave," and he has never made any mistake. This he sees from their eyes."
During this conversation we approached the garden-house where Swedenborg usually sat in summer, and where he had most of his visions. It is a square building, after the manner of those times, with decorations on the roof, sad loop-holes through them. We entered; there was a room painted green in oil colours, with a double door in the back-ground, and over the door a little window with brass fastenings. This door led into a kind of alcove, which was ornamented with a large mirror between two hook-cases. "It was there, out of this looking-glass," said the old woman, "where Swedenborg saw the visions float towards him."
A peculiar, solemn feeling came over my childish heart; it seemed to me as if I had been initiated into the mysteries of the spirit world; perhaps it was then opened to my inward senses, and perhaps it was closed when I began to ponder about it, just as the pay of the sun vanishes when we wish to analyze it, and instead of the light there are changing colours.
Such was Danieli's account of the only time when he was able to get any particular information about that extraordinary man Swedenborg.
DOCUMENT 293.
WAS SWEDENBORG A FREEMASON?
It has been attempted of late to answer this question in the affirmative, on the strength of the following document which was communicated to the editor of these ADocuments" by Mr. L. P. Regnell, Clerk of the County Court, a member of the New Church, and Commander of the Lodge of Freemasons in Lund:
"In the archives of the chapter in Christianstad, there is an old book of records, containing the minutes of a Convention or Lodge held in Wittshfle, June 5, 1787. King Gustavus III, and his brother, Duke Charles of Sdermanlsnd (Charles XIII), were present, and the latter presided at the Lodge. Many brethren from the southern part of Sweden, Stockholm, from Pomerania, Greifswalde, and Stralsund, were present; the names of the officers that assisted at the meeting are also given. Among other things, the minutes state that the first brother of the watch, Lieutenant-Colonel and Knight Baltzar Wedemar, upon this occasion delivered a lecture on Masonry, which was listened to by all with great attention and interest. In this lecture he mentioned the writings of Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg, and spoke of his career as a Freemason; that he visited Charles XII in Altenstedt, in order to have the high order of Masonry introduced into Sweden; that Mr. Wedemar himself had visited the Lodge in London, which Swedenborg joined at the beginning of the year 1706, and that the signature of his name is in the register of the Lodge, &c.
The minutes state further, that the King and the Duke were both aware of the fact that Swedenborg had been a member of the order end the same was also known to the other brethren who were present. The Lodge which Swedenborg joined, and which bears his name, is no. 6, in London. In a German work, entitled 'Latona,' which appeared in Leipzig, in the department of news, there is an article relating all the particulars of Swedenborg's reception into the order."
The fact of Swedenborg's having joined the order of Freemasonry in London is stated here so definitely, that the editor considered it worth his while to enquire into the genuineness of the record. In order to verify the principal fact of the record, viz. Swedenborg's initiation into the order in London in 1706[?] Mr. Regnell addressed a letter to the Great Secretary of the Great National Lodge in London, which the editor translated into English and took with him to London, where he asked the Rev. D. C. Goyder, an English Freemason, to deliver it to the great Secretary. After a few weeks, Mr. Goyder received a letter from the Secretary, in which he thanked him for the letter but said that the accounts of the first part of the last century were destroyed, and that it was therefore impossible for him to comply with Mr. Regnell's request.
The next question which presents itself is one of dates; for it is stated in the above record that Swedenborg joined the order of Freemasonry in London in 1706; whereas from his journals and letters it is well established that his first visit to London was made in 1710.
In order to reconcile this discrepancy of dates, Mr. Beswick says:* "Swedenborg did not go to London until 1710; but he could readily go to LUNDEN [Lund in Skne], because his paternal home. So that if the date of this document, 1706, be correct, there is presumptive evidence that London in England is wrong, and Lunden on the opposite shore to, and about seventeen miles distant from, Copenhagen, is right." And on the strength of his supposed discovery Mr. Beswick made the following bold statement on p. 1 of his work:
"When about eighteen years of age, in the year 1706, and whilst on a visit to his home at Brunsbo, West Gothland, Swedenborg went to see the University of Lund. Here he was initiated for the first time into the mysteries of Freemasonry, taking the Chapter degrees of the Scottish Rite, which formed a part of the series. On his return he joined or affiliated with the Stockholm Chapter. Lund, where he took his degrees, is the capital of Sconen, the extreme southern province of Sweden."
* "Swedenborg Rite and the Great Masonic Leaders," &c., New York, 1870, p. 15.
All this speculation about Swedenborg's having joined the order of Freemasonry in Lund, in 1706, is exploded by the following historical account of the establishment of Freemasonry in Sweden taken from Ersch and Gruber's "Allgemeine Encyklopdie," Vol. XLIX, p. 69, from which it appears that Freemasonry was not introduced into Sweden until 1736. We read there: "Freemasonry, which was introduced from England in 1736, and quickly took root in Sweden, was forbidden by Frederic I, on October 21, 1738, under penalty of death; but seven years later the prohibition was rescinded, and the institution was placed on a secure basis. The King placed himself at its head, and received the homage of the delegates of the lodge ... Since 1786 Freemasonry in Sweden inclined partly to the metaphysical and mysticotheosophical efforts of Swedenborg; whence arose the Swedish system which has nine degrees, and which was soon favourably received in England and Russia. In a modified form of seven degrees, which was introduced by Zinnendorf, it exists also in the "Grosse Landesloge von Teutschland" (in the grand Lodge of Germany) in Berlin." This account was written by one of the historians of Freemasonry, August Wilh. Mller, the editor of the Masonic Journal "Astr."
As the order of Freemasonry was not introduced into Sweden before 1736, and as it was not placed on a safe footing there until 1745, the following assertion of Mr. Beswick also falls to the ground (p. 18), AFor a number of years he (Swedenborg) was known as a constant visitor in the chapters of Lund, Stockholm, Greifswalde, Stralsund, and Christianstad; and his visits have been traced for a period of about thirty years, or from 1706-1740." When yet the real facts of the case are, that before 1740 there were no Masonic chapters in any of the towns mentioned by Mr, Beswick, and that among Swedenborg's own private papers and MSS., there is not a single iota about Freemasonry, nor any note whatever about his having visited any Masonic lodge in the above places.
Of a like nature are further assertions which Mr. Beswick makes in the sequel to his book, about additional visits which Swedenborg is said to have made to Masonic lodges in other countries; e. g. where he declares (p. 44) that ASwedenborg spent much of his spare time in Paris during 1737, with his Masonic acquaintances;" and where he adds the following story: "On December 27, when the brethren were assembled at the festival of St. John, in the Rue de Deux Ecus, at Paris, several arrests were made, and some of the officers were imprisoned. Among the arrested was Swedenborg, who had been invited to be present. But being only a visitor and a foreigner, he was released and admonished. He was at once placed under police surveillance, which gave him so much annoyance that, on March 12th, 1738, he deemed it prudent to quit Paris. A confirmation of these arrests will be found in the Acta Latomorum, sub anno 1737."
We are ready to admit that the above story is correct, so far as the arrest of certain members of the Masonic fraternity is concerned, but the share attributed to Swedenborg we declare to be false, on this ground, that of his stay in Paris from September 3, 1736 to March 12, 1738, Swedenborg himself has kept a minute account in the Journal of his Travels (Document 206, pp. 91 to 102), and that, while he mentions several Swedish gentlemen on whom he called in Paris, in addition to his bankers, he nowhere speaks of any Masonic acquaintances, nor does he mention his "having been arrested, and placed under police surveillance," which if true, he certainly would not have failed to record in a private account of his journeys.
Of a similar fictitious nature are all the other visits to Masonic lodges of which Mr. Beswick speaks in the sequel to his book.
The whole subject of the relation of Swedenborg and the New Church to Freemasonry has been minutely inquired into by Dr. A. Kahl, Dean of Lund, in his work entitled: "Nya Kyrkan och dess inflytelse p Theologiens Studium i Swerige":
(The New Church and its influence on the study of theology in Sweden), Part IV, pp. 63 to 88, where he sums up the result of his investigations in the following words:
"The agreement between the dogmas of Freemasonry and the New Jerusalem has no doubt led Reghellini di Schio to the idea, that Swedenborg was one of the most celebrated reformers among the Masons, and had himself founded a lodge of nine degrees. This assertion, however, which is made in Rhegelini's work entitled: "La Maonnerie considere comme le rsultat des religions gyptienne, juive, et chrtienne,' lacks every historical basis, so far as it has been possible to trace up this matter. Swedenborg did not found, but some of his friends and disciples, e. g. Chastanier222 and Pernety,34 have founded Masonic lodges. And one result attained by their efforts is that within the ranks of Freemasonry they have directed the ideas of men to the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, so that these doctrines have really exerted an influence upon the progress and development of the order in Sweden, as well as in other countries" (p. 70).
In other places (p. 83 and 84) Dr. Kahl furnishes particulars of the orders that were thus introduced by Benedict Chastanier and Abb Pernety.
An emissary of the Society in Avignon founded by Pernety, Count Grabinka, arrived in London in 1786, and endeavoured to interest the members of the New Church in England in the mysteries of the order. A minute account of this visit is contained in Hindmarsh's "Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church," pages 41 to 49, to which we refer those who desire additional information on this subject.
DOCUMENT 294.
DOCUMENTS COLLECTED BY MR. WILLIAM WHITE.267
These documents, consisting of letters written by Bishop Swedberg, Swedenborg's father, are contained in the following publication by Mr. White: "Emanuel Swedenborg: His Life and Writings," second edition, London, 1868. As he does not furnish the sources whence he derived these documents, we give them on his authority. His character as an impartial witness in re "Swedenborg," will be investigated in Note 267.
A.
FIRST LETTER ADDRESSED BY BISHOP SWEDBERG TO KING CHARLES XII.*
*See Mr. White's work quoted above, p. 27.
"Most Mighty King, Most Gracious Lord,
"My disposition, thank God, has ever been far from selfish, and for this cause He has most richly blessed me. By His help I have been able to spend large sums in printing expensive books for the service of His Church and the edification of many souls. Were I to continue this expenditure when misfortune and misery cry aloud, I should yield my people to wretchedness, and were I to keep silence, I should be lost in despair. I am therefore forced to complain, and bring my necessities before those who are bound by their position under God to succour them who are in distress, and who cannot therefore allow me or mine to go to ruin.
"Your Royal Highness gives proof of your sovereign grace and tenderness in ordering special subscriptions to be made for the complete restoration of the episcopal palace; but I, my wife, and children, O most gracious King, are going about little short of naked; neither have I a single book which my office demands.
"When the house is ready, there will be furniture to be thought of; chests, cupboards, tables, table-cloths, beds, bed-linen, bed-curtains, dishes, plates, and various other things, required in such an establishment.
"I have, O King, two young sons who have been brought up for Your Majesty's service. One of twenty-four years of age is now in England pursuing his studies, another of seventeen is in Pomerania with the army. I must not see them want.
"JESPER SWEDBERG.
"Rnaker, March 11, 1712."
B.
SECOND LETTER OF BISHOP SWEDBERG TO THE KING.*
* Ibid. p. 28.
"Most Mighty King, Most Gracious Lord,
"I have a son Emanuel, who has been for years pursuing his studies in England, Holland, and France, and is now staying, I believe, at Restock or Greifswalde. In mathematics and mechanics he may, with God's help, be useful to Your Majesty, either at the Academy [University] or elsewhere.
"JESPER SWEDBERG.
"Brunsbo, October 21, 1714."
C.
THIRD LETTER OF BISHOP SWEDBERG TO THE KING.*
*Ibid. p. 29.
"Most Mighty and Gracious King,
"In my last humble memorial I mentioned that I have a son, Emanuel, who has been for four years abroad in England, Holland, and France, and is now living at Greifswalde. He has made good use of his time, is master of the requisite languages, and is expert in mathematics and mechanics. If Your Royal Majesty has need of such a one, I assure you he will give you satisfaction.
"JESPER SWEDBERG.
"Brunsbo, November 25, 1714."
D.
A LETTER OF BISHOP SWEDBERG TO THE LORD LIEUTENANT FEIF.106*
* Ibid., p. 31. Mr. White calls the gentleman addressed by the Bishop APfiff;" but this is evidently a mistake.
"May it please your Excellency,
"My son Emanuel, after five years' foreign travel, has at length returned home. I hope he may be found available for some academy [University?]. He is accomplished in Oriental languages as well as European, but especially he is an adept in poetry and mathematics. He intends to build himself an Observatory where he will try to discover a method for ascertaining the longitude at sea. If there should be any academical opening, will Your Excellency be so kind as advance him to fill it? With God's help, he will honour his place.
"JESPER SWEDBERG.
"Brunsbo, July 12, 1715."
E.
FOURTH LETTER OF BISHOP SWEDBERG TO THE KING.*
* Ibid., p. 32.
"Most Mighty King, Most Gracious Lord,
"It has pleased God to allot me seven children, for whose well-being I am bound to care. Three are sons. The eldest [Emanuel] seeks by study to render himself perfectly accomplished for the service of Your Majesty and our fatherland; the second [Eliezer] does so likewise in mining; and the third [Jesper] by service for two years in Your Majesty's army in Pomerania, and now, by a voyage to the far Indies. The daughters are all married to honourable men; two are wedded to clergymen-one [Anna] to Eric Benzelius, and the other [Catherina] to Jonas Unge of the remaining two, [Margaretha] is married to Lundstedt, the Master of the Horse in Your Majesty's Life Guards, and the other [Hedwig] to Lars Benzelstjerna* the Master of the Mines in East and West Bergslagen.
* The Bishop's son-in-law, before he was ennobled in 1719, was not called ABenzelstjerna," but Benzelius."
"For these I make bold in all humility to solicit, that it may please Your Royal Majesty to promote to the rank and place of Nobles my afore-named sons and my two last-named sons-in-law, the Master of the Horse, Lundstedt, and the Master of the Mines, Benzelstjerna.* It will encourage them to be still more worthy of the grace of Your Royal Majesty; and to me, Your Majesty's loyal subject, your favour will be peculiarly agreeable.
* The Bishop's son-in-law, before he was ennobled in 1719, was not called "Benzelstjerna," but Benzelius."
"JESPER SWEDBERG.
"Brunsbo, February 9, 1715."
F.
FIFTH LETTER OF BISHOP SWEDBERG TO THE KING.
"Most Mighty King, Most gracious Lord,
"I am desirous to help my children forward as far as I can in Your Royal Majesty's service. My son Emanuel is of Polhem's mind, and has travelled in foreign parts for four years, and has given proofs of his powers in print, see [Ddalus Hyperboreus]. My next Eliezer," the Bishop, according to Mr. White, recites here as before the family register. "These, I beseech most humbly, that Your Royal Majesty may, of your grace, be pleased to exalt to the rank and privilege of Nobles, whereby they will be greatly encouraged in Your Majesty's service.
"JESPER SWEDBERG.
"Wennersborg, April 23, 1716."
DOCUMENT 295.
A LETTER FROM SWEDENBORG TO TRIER,* THE AULIC COUNCILLOR, IN DRESDEN.**
* In Document 208, p. 72, of this volume Swedenborg describes his visit to Mr. Trier, the Aulic Councillor, in Dresden.
** The Latin original of this letter is in the possession of John Bragg, Esq., Birmingham.
Most Illustrious Councillor,
Accept my best thanks for the kind transmission of the neat drawing of the marmoset, imprinted in so lifelike a manner in a stone. With your permission, most illustrious councillor, I should be glad to insert this new specimen in my work.* Of all those of the same kind, which have as yet come under my observation, this is the most perfect and complete, and will, I foresee, take the palm among all the vestiges of animals imprinted on stone.
But before sending it to an engraver, I should like to know the locality and the year in which the stone with these traces was excavated, that I may affix to the plate the date and place as well as your illustrious name.
* The copper engraving in question is contained in Vol. II of Swedenborg's Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, p. 169.
In the mean time believe me to be ever ready to render you any service, and likewise that I shall ever be mindful of your kindness. I remain, Most Illustrious Councillor,
Your most obedient and humble servant,
EM. SWEDENBORG.
Leipzig, January 5, 1734.
DOCUMENT 296.
SWEDENBORG'S CLAIMS AGAINST HIS COUSIN PETER Schönström:47*
* The above document was kindly communicated to the Editor by the Royal Librarian, G. E. Klemming, Esq., since the appearance of the first volume of the present work.
A.
SWEDENBORG TO THE COUNTY JUDGE (HRADSHFDING) AND COUNTY COURT (TINGSRT) AT SKINSKATTEBERG.
To the Honourable Judge and County Court,
As I understand that the well-born Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Schönström has some real estate in Skedwi and other places within your jurisdiction; for the sake of protecting my interests I send you two promissory notes which were issued a considerable time ago, and which have not yet been paid, requesting you to take a legal copy of them, and communicate to me a copy of the minute you have taken on the subject. For which favour, I remain, with all due respect,
Your most obedient servant,
EM. SWEDENBORG.
Stockholm, May 31, 1742.
B.
PROMISSORY NOTE, NO. 1, ISSUED BY PETER Schönström TO EM. SWEDENBORG.
I am indebted to my cousin, the well-born Emanuel Swedenborg, assessor in His Majesty's College of Mines, to the amount of Seven Thousand, Six Hundred, and Fifteen dalers in copper, for five hundred and seven skeppund, and half a lisspund of cast iron from Starbo and Presthytte. I therefore promise to pay the said sum of 7615 dalers and 29 re in copper to my above-named cousin or order in the middle of June, 1738; and meanwhile, from the middle of June of the present year to the above-mentioned term, or the middle of June, 1738, to pay interest at sa per cent on the above sum I which I herewith affirm with the signature of my name. Good for 7615 dalers and 29 re in copper.
P. Schönström
(L. S.)
Berentshamrar, April 19, 1736.
Notice on the back: The "Tingsrtt" of Skinskatteberg's "Bergslag," took a legal notice of the above on February 3, 1741,* for the sake of communicating it to Schönström.
* This date does not seem to be correct. Compare the date in subdivision A
C.
PROMISSORY NOTE, NO. 2, ISSUED BY PETER Schönström TO EM. SWEDENBORG.
I herewith declare that I have borrowed Two Thousand dalers in copper from my cousin, the well-born Emanuel Swedenborg, Assessor in His Royal Majesty's and the country's College of Mines, which sum, so God will, I shall pay on May 1, 1738, in full, with all gratitude. Meanwhile I pledge myself to pay annually on May 1, six per cent interest on the above sum. That I consider this to be irrevocable, I affirm here with the signature of my name and my seal.
P. Schönström
(L. S.)
Berenshamrar, April 30, 1736.
Good for 2000 dalers in copper.
On the back the same endorsement as in subdivision B.
DOCUMENT 297.
A LIST OF VALUABLES.
This list seems to record presents which Swedenborg received at various times in the spiritual world. It is written in his own handwriting on the cover of a copy of the Vera Christiana Religio, which was used by himself, and which is now in the possession of the Rev. W. H. Benade, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America.*
* The above Document was printed in the Swedish language by the Royal Librarian, G. E. Klemming, Esq., in the appendix to his edition of "Swedenborg's Drmmar," p. 78.
"1. A handsome red chest with five compartments and five drawers in each compartment.
"2. A handsome suit of clothes; a fine cap.
"3. A little crown containing five small diamonds, which is worn in heaven on one side of the head.
"4. A beautiful little rose, with a most brilliant diamond in the centre, which was afterwards set in a gold ring.
"5. A 'caraph' or a decoration to be worn on the head.
"6. A necklace of diamonds. A pendant of gold containing a diamond.
"7. A bracelet of diamonds.
"8. Earrings, each containing three diamonds.
"9. A capsule in a casket containing shining crystals, by which is signified regeneration to eternity.
"10. Something precious for the hand, which was placed in a beautiful case on November 28, 1770.
"A pendant in the form of a jewel, containing a beautiful diamond,
"12. A fine hat for me.
"13. Something precious which cannot be seen by spirits, only by angels, on May 28, 1771.
"A cane with a fine gold-top, on August 13, 1771."
DOCUMENT 298.
PRIVATE MEMORANDA.
These memoranda were written by Swedenborg on the last page of his "Diarium Spirituale." They were not noticed by Dr. Immanuel Tafel in his Latin edition of that work. Mr. Klemming published them for the first time in the appendix to his edition of "Swedenborg's Drmmar," p. 72. The initial letter of the person concerning whom these memoranda are written is B. Mr. Klemming suggests E. before the letter B., in which case the name of the person would either be E[ricus] B[enzelius],6 or E[rland] B[roman].167 In Note 8 of Volume I we state our reasons why we think that L., i. e. Lars is the proper name to be placed before B.; whence it would follow that the whole of these memoranda were written about Swedenborg's brother-in-law, Lars Benzelstierna.8*
* In Note 8 we refer to S. D. 5134, as proving that the initials at the head of these "Private Memoranda" should be L. B., and we state there that in that number the same charges are made in general against L. B., which in the "Private Memoranda" are made in particular against B. This passage reads as follows: "I heard some one speaking in hell, who in the world had attempted to perpetrate most wicked deeds, viz., to kill another from hatred, which he often endeavoured and plotted to do, but in vain. It was L. B. who said that he did not believe that such things condemned man, provided he was in faith; because faith alone saves. There are many men from the church, perpetrators of wicked deeds, who believed the same thing."
"[L.] B.8 incited Nordencrantz,l33 as is proved by the letter of---to B
"Brita Behm50 was incited by him, as was acknowledged and confessed by her.
"It was shown how he spoke with Stjerncrona, of the 'trabants,'* who would not fall in so readily with his idea of killing me. Sometime before that he had applied to Reutercrona, whose sphere was known to me, as of one who desired strongly to kill me.
* Probably Pehr Stjerncrona (born 1699, died 1778), who was in the corps of the Royal body-trabants (Lifdrabanterna) from 1722 to 1746. See Anrep's "Altar-taflor," Vol. 1V, p. 167.
"He was convicted by several proofs that in administering the estate of one deceased [probably Bishop Swedberg's estate, see Document 126], he acted wrongly, according to friendships and bribes, without conscience.
"By some proofs [he was convicted] in the affair about the young woman, whom he did away with; together with the may in which he cast her off (solt)...
"The arrangement by which in former times he desired to run me down on the ice.
"He entertained thoughts of killing me, as long as I continued holding half of Starbo.68
"He was convicted of desiring to instigate Brita Behm50 to begin a law-suit about the division of Axmar [see Document 32].
"The hatred he entertained was shown by a soup of vipers he administered to me in my sleep; he appearing all black. Afterwards [he was seen] with a pointed knife at his side.
[1.] "He spoke with Stk and Fahlfors, that they should lead me to the other side of the lake, and do away with me, but in vain. 2. With Daniel about the same thing, but in vain. 3. With another in the village of Starbo, that he should take me out into the moods. 4. He had made a plan, and wished to strike a knife into my chest. 5. He dressed himself in the garments of a farm servant, and looked out for me himself. 6. He conversed, and had an interview in his residence with the person who was sent down for the purpose of killing me. 7. He put spiders into the meat, and thus caused me to vomit bile.
On another fly-leaf of the "Spiritual Diary" we find the following annotation; "I had the first dream about the father and mother of the man in Schonen, in 1749, on the 20th and 22nd."
DOCUMENT 299.
SWEDENBORG'S THOUGHTS ON READING SWAMMERDAM'S "BIBLIA NATUR."
On the fly-leaf of Swedenborg's copy of Swammerdam's "Biblia Natur" which he presented to Count Höpken (see Document 218, p. 233), and which is now in the possession of Dr. Lovn of the "Carolinska Institut" in Stockholm, is written by his own hand, as follows:
"When such as believe in nature see how these animals or insects are generated in the ground or on the leaves of plants, and when they examine the wonderful things in their organisms, and things made by their means, they think that nature produces them, not knowing that their formation and vivification is from the spiritual world, and their reception and clothing from the natural world; further, that the heat of the sun at the time of spring and summer dissolves and adapts the particles of purer nature for the reception of influx, and for the process of clothing. Wherefore the same argument and the same confirmation, which the believers of nature derive hence, are to me an argument for, and a confirmation of, a continual influx from the spiritual into the natural world. Written in the year 1750.
"The changes of caterpillars into butterflies, the government of bees, and many other things which are described in this book, are manifest signs of such an influx."
"Additional information on this subject may be found in the work on 'Heaven and Hell,' no. 567; compare also nos. 39, 108, and 109, in the same work."
DOCUMENT 300.
THE SIGNIFICATION OF THE HORSE AND HIEROGLYPHICS.*
* The Latin original of this Document is preserved in the Royal Library in Stockholm, to which it has recently been transferred from the Library of Count Engeström. It was published by the Royal Librarian, G. E. Klemming, Esq., in the appendix to "Swedenborg's Drmmar." p. 73 et seq. a copy of this paper it seems was also communicated by Swedenborg in a letter to the Rev. T. Hartley. An English translation of that letter appeared in the 'Intellectual Repository' for December, 1842, and was afterwards published by the Swedenborg Society as an appendix to the treatise on "The White Horse." The latter part of this letter where it treats of Egyptian hieroglyphics was also reprinted in the appendix to the English edition of the "Swedenborg Documents," published in Manchester in 1855.
[To the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.]
"As it must necessarily appear strange at the present day that by a horse is signified the understanding of truth, and, in an opposite sense, reasonings by which falsities are confined as it were from the understanding, I wish to adduce additional passages from the Word where the horse is mentioned.* These passages are as follows: 'Is Thy wrath against the sea, O Jehovah, that Thou ridest upon Thine horses? Thy chariots are salvation. Thou walkest into the sea with Thine horses, into the mire of great waters' (Hab. iii. 8, 15). 'The hoofs of the horses of Jehovah are accounted as rocks' (Isa. v. 28). 'At Thy rebuke both the chariot and the horse are cast into a dead sleep' (Psalm lxxvi. 6).
'I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down' (Hag. ii. 29). 'I will cut off the horse from Jerusalem, and he shall speak peace unto the nations' (Zec. ix. 10). In these passages by a horse is signified the understanding of the truth of the church, by a chariot doctrine thence, and by those who ride on horses and by riders those who are in understanding and in doctrine from the Word. The same appears still more clearly from the following passages: 'Assemble yourselves on every side to my sacrifice; ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots; thus will I set my glory among the nations' (Ezek. xxxix. 17, 20, 21). 'Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them' (Rev. xix. 17, 18); here the New Church, which will be instituted by the Lord, is treated of, and it is said that then the understanding of the Word will be opened, and men will be instructed in the doctrine of truth thence; for otherwise it would be sheer nonsense to say, that 'they shall be filled at the Lord's table with horses and chariots,' and that 'they shall eat the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them.' Besides what has already been quoted, the signification of a horse and a chariot appears also from the following passages; 'Gird on thy sword, O most mighty, ride forth on the Word of truth' Psalm xlv. 3, 4). 'Sing, extol Him that rideth upon clouds' (Psalm lxviii. 4). 'Jehovah rideth on a cloud' (Isa. xix. 1). 'Sing praises unto the Lord; to 'Him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old' (Psalm lxviii. 33, 34). 'God rode upon a cherub' (Psalm xviii. 10). 'Jehovah alone did lead him; He made him ride on the high places of the earth' (Deut. xxxii. 12, 13). 'I will make Ephraim to ride' (Hos. x. 11). By riding in these places is signified to instruct and to be instructed in the truths of doctrine, and thus to be wise; the high places of the earth signify the sublime things of the church; and by Ephraim is likewise meant the understanding of the Word. Similar things are understood by the horses and chariots, where we read that 'four chariots came out from between mountains of brass, and that four horses were attached to them, which were red, black, white, and grizzled; which horses are also called spirits which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth" (Zec. vi. 1-8).
Likewise by this, And when the Lamb had opened the seals of the book, horses came forth in order; first a white horse, secondly a red horse, thirdly a black horse, and fourthly a pale horse (Rev. vi, 1-8); by the book whose seals were opened by the Lamb is signified the Word; and that nothing else can proceed from the Word but its understanding, is very evident; and what other use could it possibly be to read that horses went forth from the book. That a horse signifies the understanding of truth, and chariot doctrine, appears also from those passages in Scripture where they are mentioned in an opposite sense, and where by a horse is signified the understanding which by reasoning falsifies truths, and by a chariot doctrine or heresy thence; as in the following passages: 'Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses: but look not unto the Holy One of Israel; for Egypt is man and not God; and its horses flesh, and not spirit' (Isa. xxxi, 1, 3). 'Thou shalt set a king over Israel, whom Jehovah shall choose; only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses" (Deut. xvii, 14-16); this is said because by Egypt is signified the natural man, which by reasonings from the senses of the body perverts the truths of the Word: what else could it possibly mean, that 'the horses of Egypt are flesh and not spirit,' and that 'the king shall not multiply horses,' i. e. the falsities of religion? 'Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: (Hosea xiv, 3). 'Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will glorify the name of our God' Psalm xx, 7). 'A horse is a vain thing for help' (Psalm xxxiii, 17). 'Thus said the Holy One of Israel, in confidence shall be your strength; but ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses, we will ride upon the swift' (Isa. xxx, 15, 16). 'Jehovah shall make Judah as the horse of glory; the riders on horses shall be confounded' (Zec. x, 3, 5). 'I will bring upon Tyrus the King of Babylon with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen. By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust shall cover thee; thy walls shall shake at the voice of the horsemen, and of the chariots; with the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets' (Ezek. xxvi, 7, 10, 11).
By Tyre in the Word is signified the church as to the knowledge or good and truth, and by the King of Babylon their falsification and profanation: whence it is here said that 'he shall come with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen,' and that 'by reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust shall cover thee.' 'Woe to the city of blood! it is all full of lies, and the horse neighs, and the chariot jumps' (Nahum iii, 1-4); by the city of blood is signified doctrine from the falsified truths of the Word. Besides other places, such as the following: Isa. v, 26, 25 ; Jer. vi, 23 ; viii, 16; xlvi, 4, 9; 1, 37, 38, 43; Ezek. xvii, 15; xxiii, 5, 20; Hab. i, 6, 8, 9, 10; Psalm lxvi, 11, 12; cxlvii, 10. The understanding of the truth of the Word falsified and destroyed is also signified by the red, black, and pale horses in the Revelation (vi, 4, 6, 8). As the horse therefore signifies the understanding of truth, and in an opposite sense the understanding of what is false, what the quality of the Word is in its spiritual sense is apparent.
* From this passage it would seem as if the present document had been intended by Swedenborg as a supplement to his work on "The White Horse."
"It is well known that in Egypt there were hieroglyphics, and that they were inscribed on the columns and walls of the temples and other buildings; and likewise that no one at the present day knows what was signified thereby. Those hieroglyphics were nothing else than the correspondences of natural and spiritual things. These correspondences were studied by the Egyptians in their times more than by any of the people in Asia, and in agreement therewith the oldest inhabitants of Greece wrote their fables. Besides, this was the most ancient style of composition. To this I shall add this new information, that all things which appear before angels and spirits in the spiritual world, are nothing else than correspondences. For this reason also the whole of the Sacred Scripture was written by correspondences, that by means of it, and because it is such, conjunction may be effected between the men of the church and the angels of heaven. As the Egyptians, however, and with them others in the kingdoms of Asia, began to change these correspondences into idolatry, to which the children of Israel were prone, therefore they were forbidden to turn them to any use from themselves, as appears clearly from the first commandment of the Decalogue, which says, 'Thou shalt not make unto thee graven images of any form, that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I am Jehovah, thy God' (Deut. v, 8, 9); besides several other places. Since that time the knowledge of correspondences has been obliterated, and, indeed, gradually to such an extent, that scarcely any one at the present day knows that that knowledge ever existed, and that it is of any consequence. But as the Lord is now about to establish a new church, which is to be based on the Word, and which is understood by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, it has pleased the Lord to reveal that knowledge, and thus to open the Word, such as it is interiorly in its bosom, or in its internal sense. This was done by me in the Arcana Coelestia published in London, and afterwards in the 'Apocalypse Revealed' published in Amsterdam. As the knowledge of correspondences in the eyes of the ancients was the knowledge of knowledges, and as their wisdom was derived thence, it is of importance that some one connected with your academy should cultivate this knowledge, which may be done chiefly by means of the correspondences disclosed in the 'Apocalypse Revealed,' and proved from the Word. Should it be desired, I am willing to explain the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which are nothing but correspondences, and to publish my explanation. This also is a work which no other person can accomplish.
"EM. SWEDENBORG."
DOCUMENT 301.
SWEDENBORG'S SKETCH OF AN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE NEW CHURCH.*
* This sketch is contained in Codex 47 of the Swedenborg MSS., which are preserved in the Library of the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The title of the volume, which is almost entirely blank, is: "Register fver Concordia Boken."
1. A new Ecclesiastical History must be written, because now is the Lord's advent predicted in Matthew xxiv.
2. The church was different before the Council of Nice, as long as the Apostles' Creed was in force.
It became changed after the Council of Nice, and still more after the Athanasian Creed was composed.
The cardinal point of doctrine respecting the Triune God and the Lord was subverted in the church, especially by the dogma of three [Divine] persons from eternity.
3. The books are to be enumerated which were written, from the beginning to the present day, by the Lord through me (a Domino per me).
4. The writing there is such, that it shines brightly before those who believe in the Lord and in the new revelation; but it appears dark and of no consequence to those who deny them, and who are not in favour of them on account of various external reasons.
Experimental proofs that their style of writing is such: 1. From the censors of books of Holland who were called together in the world of spirits; one of whom upon reading these boobs said, that they were preferable to all other books, except the Word; and another said that he saw nothing in them except vain, novel, and fantastical things, and that therefore they were to be rejected as of no account.*
2. The same thing happened in England, where they were sent to the universities, because the ecclesiastical order had rejected them.** 3. About those in Gottenburg; Beyer22 Ros?45 and the others; although some see the greatness of God in them, others see nothing except what is utterly worthless. 4. In Sweden [they are looked upon in one way] by Filenius,9 and in a different way altogether by others, who may perhaps be named. 5. When I read to myself the writings which I had printed, they appeared to me vain, as long as a certain cunning and sinister one was present, but it was different in the presence of others. 6. The same thing took place in Sweden with him, who is writing a literary history. Besides other instances.
* Compare "Spiritual Diary" no. 5908
** See document 260.
5. About tinger182 in Würtemberg, from his letter.
6. About Gttingen.*
* See Document 6, no. 8, and Note 38.
7. When the "Brief Exposition" was published, the angelic heaven from the east to the west, and from the south to the north, appeared of a deep scarlet colour with the most beautiful flowers.* This took place before myself, and before the kings of Denmark and others.
* See also Document 244, p. 281.
At another time it appeared flamy, most beautiful.
8. In the spiritual world there was inscribed on all these books: "The Lord's Advent." The same I also wrote by command on two copies in Holland.*
* While the above was passing through the press, Mr. James Speirs, the publisher of these Documents, of 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, came into the possession of one of these identical volumes. It is a copy of the "Summaria Expositio (Brief Exposition) Doctrin Nov Ecclesi," published in Amsterdam in 1769. On the inside page of the wrapper which is bound up with the volume there is the following inscription in Swedenborg's own handwriting:
(2513)
HIC LIBER EST ADVENTUS DOMINI, (4535)
SCRIPTUM EX MANDATO. (6895)
(8427, p. 19)
(This Book is the Lord's Advent, written by command.)
A former owner of this volume as added to the above four quotations from the Arcana Coelestia a fifth from the "Apocalypse Revealed," viz. no. 626.
DOCUMENT 302.
ADDITIONS TO SWEDENBORG'S "TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR, UNIVERSAL THEOLOGY."
In the Royal Library of Stockholm is a MS. in folio, containing twenty-three written pages, which originally belonged to the Library of Count Engeström. On the cover it bears the following inscription:
"These papers containing original draughts, were written by Assessor Swedenborg himself, and left by him in the ship, in which he made his last journey from Stockholm to Amsterdam. They were given to me be Hkan Pltson of Carlshamn.
"AND. LANUS."146
On examining the contents of this MS. volume in 1870, the editor of these "Documents" found that it consisted for the most part of the first draughts of the following memorable relations of "The True Christian Religion," viz. nos. 16, 71, 76, 110, 112, 134, 136, 159, 325, 459, 504, 508, 695. To some of these, namely nos. 335 and 695, additions of great importance are made in the MS., which are omitted in the printed copy. The rest of the MS. consists of skeletons of memorable relations which were never finished by Swedenborg, and of tabulated statements of doctrine.
All these are given in the present document in due order.
A.
ADDITIONS TO NO. 695 OF "THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION."*
* See pp. 21 and 22 in the original MS., which is preserved in the Royal Library in Stockholm.
The subject treated of in the published part of this memorable relation, is influx. Swedenborg states there, in an assembly of wise men in the spiritual world, that men at the present day know nothing of an influx from the spiritual into the natural world. Afterwards he called the attention of the angels to some of the wonders that are produced by this influx, and then continues in the unpublished MS. as follows:
"Afterwards we discussed various other subjects, and I remarked in connection with hell, that none of all the things which are in heaven, are seen in hell; but that opposite things only appear there, because the affections of the love which prevails there, which are lusts of evil, are opposed to the affections of that love in which the angels of heaven are. In hell, therefore, there appear generally deserts, and in these, birds of night, dragons, owls, bats, and in addition, wolves, tigers, leopards, rats, and mice, and all kinds of poisonous serpents and crocodiles; and where there is an appearance of grass, it is found to consist of briars, thorns, thistles, and of some poisonous plants, which breathe a deadly odour into the air; and in another direction there are heaps of stones, and stagnant pools in which are croaking frogs. All these are likewise correspondences; but, as said above, they are correspondences of the affections of an evil love, and thus lusts. But these things are not created by God; nor are they created by Him in the natural world, where similar things exist; for all things created by God are good. On the earth they were created at the same time that hell was created and this exists from men who, by averting themselves from God, became devils and satans. As these terrible things, however, wounded the ears, we turned our thoughts away from them, and directed them to those things which we had seen in heaven.
"[In respect to miracles I told them] that all things which appear in the three kingdoms of nature are produced by an influx from the spiritual into the natural world, and, considered in themselves, are miracles, although, on account of their familiar aspect and their annual recurrence, they do not appear as such. I told them further that they should know that the miracles which are recorded in the Word likewise took place by an influx out of the prior into the posterior world, and that they were produced by an introduction of such things as are in the spiritual world into corresponding things in the natural world; e. g. that the manna which every morning descended upon the camp of the children of Israel, was produced by bread from heaven being introduced into the recipient vessels of nature; that in like manner bread and fishes were thus introduced into the baskets of the apostles, which they distributed to so many thousands of men; again, that mine out of heaven was instilled into the water in the pots at the wedding where the Lord was present; further, that the fig-tree withered, because there was no longer any influx into it of spiritual nutriment, by which it was fed from the roots; and finally that such was the case with the other miracles, and that they were not produced, according to the insane notions of some of the learned in the present day, by causes summoned from all parts of nature. Miracles therefore are the effects of the Divine Omnipotence, and take place according to the influx of the spiritual into the natural world, with this difference only, that such things as actually exist in the spiritual world are actually introduced into such things in the natural world as correspond; and I finally concluded, that the cause of such things being done and being possible, is due to the Divine Omnipotence, which is understood by the finger of God, by which the Lord produced His miracles. After I had finished my explanation, the angels kissed me for what I had told them, and said they would occasionally invite me to their assemblies. I thanked them, and promised to return, whenever the Lord would grant me permission to do so."
On p. 4 of the MS. we read, "All things of nature are like sheaths around spiritual things, and like tunics around muscular fibres. This is the cause of all the wonders and miracles in nature."
B.
ADDITION TO NO. 338 OF "THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION."*
* See original MS. in the royal Library in Stockholm, p. 5.
The subject of the memorable relation to which the following addition is made in the MS., is respecting "connate ideas," which were discussed by a number of spirits, and regarding which they were enlightened by an angelic spirit, who, according to Swedenborg's original draught, made the following additional statement:
"Afterwards the angelic spirit spoke to them: 'I will propound to you an additional problem, which you may consider and solve, viz., Is man an animal, i. e. a living being, like the beasts, or can he become such an animal? In many things the two act alike, but altogether from a different origin. Man is formed from thought, but a beast from no thought whence I conclude that man is not an animal, unless you call him a rational animal, while a beast is a brute animal, into which no rationality can ever be infused; I maintain therefore that man is not a brute animal, like the beasts.' The same difference, he said, exists between these two as between a precious and a common stone, and a precious and a common metal, neither of which can be changed into the other. Further, the same distinction is between them as between the fruits of a superior and an inferior tree, and between the fungi or mushrooms growing out of damp ground, some of which are useful and others useless. Again, he said, the difference is as between oil and water, which cannot be mixed. After saying this he went away, and I returned home. I again watched the atmosphere overhead, where before there had been so many delusive phenomena, but I saw nothing, except some stripes and some shining places; which indicated that the spirits no longer reasoned on connate ideas as before; but simply inquired whether or not there were any connate ideas."
C.
CONCERNING ORDER.*
* See original MS., p. 6.
1. Love introduces order immediately into the understanding, and by mediate things into the whole of the mind.
2. Man from his heaven rules his world, but under the Lord's auspices.
3. Man successively introduces himself into order from his infancy, by means of his parents, companions, masters; he re-acts and acts from himself, and thus imbues himself with order, and finally becomes order in the same proportion as he receives it and imbues himself with it.
4. Order is thus induced upon his state and the form of his life; and the laws of order are truths and statutes.
5. In proportion as man receives love, in the same proportion he makes for himself order, according to which, as said above, love introduces and forms order in him.
6. Man can get himself into a state of order in proportion as he gets himself into a state of love; thus he has the capability of becoming a genuine man; yet he has also the capability of becoming like the beasts of every kind.
7. True order is connected with decorum, beauty, elegance, perfection.
8. Man cannot become order from himself, except first mediately through other men, and afterwards immediately from the Lord; nor is it possible for man to introduce himself into order, and to form order in himself from himself; nor, finally, is it possible for the Lord to do so, unless man acts at the same time from himself.
9. Man cannot become a beast, but he can become as a beast.
10. The productions of love are called affections, and these constitute man's state; and its determinations through the understanding are called truths. These form man; and in proportion as the latter are produced from the former, man becomes order.
D.
THE ORDER OF INFLUX.*
* See original MS., p. 2.
1. As man instructs his understanding, he prepares it for the reception of light, and hence of wisdom from heaven.
2. As man does the goods of charity, he prepares the will for the reception of the heat of heaven, or of love.
3. Like one who cuts a diamond, he makes preparation for the splendour of light to be diffused from himself.
4. As man makes himself an organ of influx; heaven flows into him, and thus that which is from the Lord out of heaven.
5. As man makes himself spiritual from the Lord, so the Lord made Himself Divine from the Father.
6. The order of influx is this, that man should live according to the laws of order, and in proportion as he does so, he becomes a recipient: wherefore the Lord says, "If any one hears and keeps my commandments, he loves me, and I will love him and make my abode with him." Each love knows its own love, and they unite reciprocally, or mutually and alternately.
7. The Lord conjoins Himself to man, as man conjoins himself to the Lord; not otherwise. And man conjoins himself to the Lord, as the Lord conjoins himself to man. The Lord perpetually conjoins Himself.
E.
RECIPROCAL CONJUNCTION.*
* See original MS., p. 1.
Every active principle, for the sake of conjunction, imparts from its own activity to a passive receiver, whence there results a re-active principle, and thereby conjunction.
1. The Lord alone is the active principle, man being passive; and in proportion as man receives of the active principle from the Lord, he re-acts, and conjunction results thence.
2. Man's mind is the only active principle in the body, and in proportion as the body receives it, a simultaneous conjunction is effected.
3. Every muscle receives the active principle, and hence results action.
4. The heat of the sun is the only active principle in a tree, and it causes the tree to grow warm; and this warmth reciprocally conjoins itself, and action results hence. It is well known that every heated piece of good sends forth warmth from itself; but when it is not heated, it cannot give out warmth.
5. From conjunction results equilibrium; and in this all action takes place.
F.
CONCERNING INFLUX.*
* See original MS., p. 5.
The only thing that has hitherto been known concerning influx, is this:
1. The influx of light into the eye; 2. Of sound into the ear; 3. Of odour into the nose; 4. Of the body into the soul and of the soul into the body; 5. Thus of nature into that which is natural; 6. again of air into the sails of a windmill; 7. Of water into a water-wheel; 8. Or of heat into bodies, whence men and beasts vivified; 9. Of heat and light into trees, and into all the subjects of the mineral kingdom; 10. Of light into precious stones, whence result colours, and several other phenomena, which are taught by optics; 11. The influx of cold into various objects, whence arise modifications; 12. The influx of thought into speech; 13. Of the air into the lungs; 14. Of the blood from the heart into the arteries and veins; 15. Of wine into a glass; 16. Of beer into a jug; 17. Of the sun and the stars into the lives of men; 18. The influx of heat from the fire-place into articles cooked.
The whole mind with all its sensation has remained chained to nature.
The influx of faith [it is supposed] purifies man from the head to the sole of the foot, and this is joined by an influx of all good from God.
Whence it follows, that no one knows anything concerning the influx of love out of the will into the perception of the understanding, and from the understanding into the thought, and hence into speech and action. [When this bind of influx is mentioned,] men laugh, and say, These are surely figments of the imagination; let these things enter by influx, if they choose; what use is there in knowing all this; will it be of any use?
Such men are like an inhabitant of an island in the sea, who does not know that there is other inhabitable land in the globe.
He is also like a fish in a stream, which does not know that there is air above the water.
And, further, he is like a boar in a large forest, which does not know that outside the forest there are fields.
G.
THE THOUGHTS OF MATERIALISTS RESPECTING GOD.*
* See original MS., p. 19.
Those who are constantly in a material idea, like the learned who are in the mere rudiments of philosophy, and think that they are wise, if they acknowledge God, adore the mere phrase, that there is a God. But if they are told that God is Man, and that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is that Man, they do not acknowledge it; because their thought respecting Him is material, and not at the same time spiritual, wherefore they also separate His Divine Essence from His Humanity, and declare that there is a mystical conjunction between them.
H.
A MEMORABLE RELATION RESPECTING THE COUNCIL IN CONSTANTINOPLE.*
* See original MS., p. 9. This is a mere scheme or skeleton of a Memorable Relation.
There was a Synod in Constantinople, where the spiritual things of the church were discussed.
Those on the left were divided into four companies, all of which denied that spiritual things may be comprehended [by man].
The first of these companies declared, that man becomes insane when he thinks on such things; the second, that he becomes like a beast; the third asserted, that man is like a stock; and the fourth, that he is, as it were, blind.
On the right were those who declared that man is not a man, unless he is able naturally and rationally to think concerning spiritual things.
Among them also were four companies. The first declared, that he who is in illustration thinks from God the Father; the second, that he thinks from the Holy Spirit; the third that his thought is from the Triune God; and the fourth, that it is from the Lord who is the Word.
After they had finished their rationcinations, they were encompassed by a column of cloud, which was dark on one side and bright on the other, and the brightness shone in various colours before----(?)
This brightness flowed vividly into the eyes of the first cohort on the right, and [a voice was heard] saying, that they were in a fantasy; that they saw a star, and thought it was fixed, when get it was unstable and evanescent; to the second it said, that they saw fish flying in the air, a hawk in the air devouring them; to the third, that they saw a cat in a cellar, and an owl in a corner, looking at each another; and to the fourth, that they saw the Word in light, encompassed with a shining brightness, and a rainbow over it.
They were not able to see one another, because the vision of their eyes was affected by the colour which flowed in.
At last an angel came from the heaven of the Lord. He raised the cloud, so that they could see one another as in the natural light of day.
The companies [on the left] left the temple through their gate; and the companies on the right through theirs; and to the last of these companies the angel gave palms, and put laurels on their heads; but to the rest he did not give anything.
Those on the left had said that there was nothing spiritual in our theology, only in faith, in which nothing is seen; not in charity, not in the remission of sins, not in regeneration, nor in the use of the sacrament, as soon as thought enters into them. But again they said that all things of the church are spiritual, as soon as nothing is seen in them.
[They said further] that when attempting to reflect on the things of the church, we are like an eagle in the ether, and like a bird under an air-pump.
What, they said, can you see in abstract things, and in such as are above the understanding?
Sometimes I was almost persuaded that they were angels; when yet they were like putrid wood that shines on the outside.
In the world man is two-fold; after death all become single. In the world man has a sensation of both [his internal and external]. This is changed after death.
What pious and wise man would not like to know the fate of his life after death? Wherefore the general principles have keen revealed, from which he may know it, if he choose.
The delight of all in hell is to injure the neighbour, and to blaspheme God; and this delight springs from their heart or their will. They are, however, restrained by punishments from acting according to their delights.
The delight of all in heaven consists in doing good to the neighbour, and in blessing God, and indeed from the heart or will, and at the same time by deed.
Man's interior is his spirit, the interior of that his will; the interior of the will is his love, and the interior of that his delight. The consociation of all is according to delights.
(N.B. That consociations are according to odours, will be shown in a special memorable relation.)
I.
CONCERNING ODOURS.*
* See original MS., p. 7.
[The odours in hell] are like those of the various wild beasts, of mice, cats, dogs, foxes, wolves, panthers, bears, tigers, or swine. Further, like the stench of the excrements of these beasts, and also of man; like the bad odour of stagnant waters, and marshes; like that of various dead bodies; like that of various putrid substances; like that of privies, urinals, and snakes; like the bad smell of dregs, and of vomit; like the smell of various he-goats. These they sniff in with their noses, and by their eyes are led to the places, whence they emanate. When they scent the sphere of matrimony, they are affected with nausea, or become lustful.
In heaven are fragrances from herbs, from various trees, from apples, pears, oranges, olives, grapes. There is an odour as from their leaves; as from the various cereals; and the various kinds of wine and must. There is a perfume as from newly baked bread and cakes; as from various flowers; as from various useful trees in groves and forests; as from honey. There is an aroma as from frankincense, and various other ingredients. The sphere of infants, and of the angels, is changed into such perfumes in heaven.
Wild beasts on earth are consociated according to their odours; they know those of their own kind by their smell; likewise their enemies. From the odour they know their food. The bees fly directed by their sense of smell, likewise butterflies.
The infernals shun heavenly perfumes, and the inhabitants of heaven the stenches of hell. On this account all domiciles in hell are closed. For this reason the children of Israel were commanded to carry their excrements outside of their camp, and to bury them there. When the dwellings in hell are opened they excite nausea and a desire to vomit; which has been several times experienced by myself. The stenches of hell are sweet-scented to their nostrils; and, on the contrary, the perfumes of heaven ill-scented. Sympathy and antipathy originate thence.
Man is not affected by these in the body, because the Lord removes them, for the sake of consociation. External things also change these into perfumes, and by them internal things are enclosed and shut in.
The following odours are not displeasing, viz., those from lambs, sheep, calves cattle, horses, mules; elephants, camels, stags; chickens, swans, doves, and other birds.
There is not a single object in the mineral kingdom which does not give out an odour, and, indeed, in the form of an impalpable powder, by which seeds are impregnated. In the vegetable kingdom also there is not a single object which does not emit an odour. This odour consists of particles of a fatty and saline nature, which are given out at the same time with the watery exhalations. In the animal kingdom also there is not a single object, which does not breathe out an odour. Concerning this see above.
Odour or scent is nothing else than a sort of smoke, consisting of minutest substances separated from the various matters. This separation goes on continually, and the loss is made up by the addition of new particles. The particles which are thus cast off become the volatile aura [sphere] of their subject. This appears clearly from the magnet, and from the dogs used in hunting, which pursue hares, stags, and game of different kinds by their smell. Of Jehovah we read that He scented an odour of rest from sacrifices.
Those who [in the spiritual world] appear like satyrs scent prostitutes, i. e. the smell of prostitutes; those who appear like foxes scent cunning and stratagems; those who are like leopards smell those who are crafty; those who are like panthers scent murderers and assassins; revenge is delightful to them; and so forth.
Horses by their smell turn their heads towards those who are rational in truths; but their tails towards those who reason from fallacies. Those who are like dogs, scent those who are luxurious, &c.
All those who are in hell turn their backs towards heaven, and cannot endure the least odour thence. If they feel the conjugial [sphere], they become infuriated, and if they do not turn themselves away, they fall into a swoon; likewise when they hear anything concerning the Lord.
It is different with men in their externals, because there is a barrier between their externals and internals.
The odour of every one is like an elementary sphere in which he freely draws breath; every one pants after this, and as soon as he is in it, he is in himself.
The hell of robbers and pirates smells like the carcases of cows and sheep; the hell of murderers and assassins like a human corpse; likewise the hell of the Sodomites. This stench is balmy, aromatic, and fragrant to them, and like a sweet feast in their breast; and like a noble spirit of wine in their heads. They inhale this stench with both nostrils and with open mouths, and it refreshes them after they have made their escape from some heavenly odour.
Once I saw an astute devil like a leopard ascending a high mountain where there were celestial angels, encompassed by a hedge of olive trees; after he had drawn in a full breath of that odour, he was seized with spasms, became stiffened in all his joints, writhed like a snake, and was cast down headlong. Afterwards he was lifted up by his associates, and taken into a den, and into his own odour, where he revived.
Again, I saw how a certain devil was scourged by his associates in hell, because, without any reason, and, as he said, with a stuffed nose, he had approached such as were in a heavenly odour, and had brought back some of their perfume in his garments.
Odour in the Word signifies perception.
J.
THE BEING OF GOD OR OF JEHOVAH.*
* See original MS., p. 8.
We read, "I am the First and the Last, Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, who is, and who was, and who is to come." "In Him we live and move." "From Myself I have created all things." All things are from Him, hence all things are in Him, and all things must turn towards Him, as the surface turns to that which is opposite to it. Those who turn themselves away, are indeed from God, but they are not in God; they are snatched away as it were from the surface; they gyrate in a circle, and are desirous of becoming gods.
The essence of God is love and wisdom, and through both them are omnipotence and omnipresence. He is like the sun of this world, through which He created the natural universe, in which we are and live as to our body; the essence of which is heat and light; and by these two its power and its presence are caused.
God is the sun of the created universe; the heat that proceeds from Him is love, and the light wisdom.
Immensity without space, and eternity without time are especially His Being.
K.
CONCERNING REDEMPTION.*
* See original MS., p. 8.
The Lord sustained the passion of the cross as the greatest prophet, that He might bear to the iniquity of the people. Like the prophets, concerning whom see [T. C. R. 126].
All his suffering signified how the Jews had vilified and perverted the Word.
The passion of the cross, also, was the last temptation, by which He glorified His humanity.
Redemption did not consist in that passion, but in the subjugation of the hells, and the orderly arrangement of everything there and in heaven.
(The Redemption will be treated of in its own memorable relation hereafter.)
L.
CONCERNING THE LORD'S*
* See original MS., p. 18.
In Christ Man is God, and God Man.
The Father Himself is one.
He who has seen the Son has seen the Father; He is in the Father, and the Father in Him.
"All mine are thine, and thine are mine;" thus all the Divinity of the Father is in the Son, and all the Humanity of the Son is in the Father.
From which it follows that in the Lord God and Saviour, God is Man, and Man is God. Consequently that God the Father assumed the Humanity, and thus that the Lord God is the Saviour, and also the Father.
That the Father is the Saviour, appears from Isaiah, "Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father, our Redeemer: Thy name is from everlasting." And again in Isaiah, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and His name is God, Hero, Father of Eternity." And in the Lord's prayer we read, "Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come," i. e. God and Father, hallowed be Thy humanity, and thus let Thy kingdom come.
That the humanity is meant by the name of the Father, appears from these words of the Lord, "Father, glorify Thy name," i. e. Thy Humanity, and thus, and not otherwise, Thy kingdom shall come.
By a name in heaven nothing else is meant than the quality of any one; wherefore all are named there according to their quality, quite differently from what is done in the natural world. And the quality of God the Father is in His Humanity; otherwise no one would know the quality of Divinity, because it is infinite.
That this is so appears from these words of the Lord, "All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me," and "from henceforth ye know the Father, and have seen Him."
Every man can say the same thing of his own soul and his own body, "All thine shall come to me; all mine are thine, all thine are mine; we are one; he who sees me, sees thee," and so forth. If man as to his body is called father, he is the father also as to his soul.
For in the Lord, God and Man, or the Divine and the Human nature, are as one person, as the soul and body are one man, according to the doctrine which from the Athanasian creed has been received throughout the whole of Christendom.
It hence appears why the Lord said of Himself in His Humanity. ["I am in the Father, and the Father in Me. The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works."]
DOCUMENT 303.
LAST WORK PROJECTED BY SWEDENBORG, ENTITLED, "THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE, THE LORD'S SECOND COMING, AND THE NEW CHURCH."*
* The original of this document has lately been transferred from the Library of Count Engeström to the Royal Library in Stockholm, where it now is.
Concerning the consummation of the age that it was predicted in Daniel v, and in Matthew xxiv.
(To be treated in chapters.)
The Lord's Second Coming predicted by the Lord in the prophets, the gospels, and the writings of the apostles.
(To be treated in chapters).
The Lord's New Church, which was announced as the New Jerusalem in the Word of both Testaments, and described in the Revelation.
(To be treated in chapters.)
An Invitation to the New Church made to the whole Christian world, and an exhortation that they should worthily receive the Lord.
One memorable notice is to be added, viz. that all things of the New Church appear before one in illustration in the light of truth, but as soon as they are submitted to the orthodoxy of the church at the present day, the light of truth becomes darkness.
All the points belonging to the doctrine of the New Church are to be explained in their order; likewise those belonging to the old orthodoxy.
SECTION XII.
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO SWEDENBORG'S PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS.
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INTRODUCTION.
This Section contains the result of a thorough investigation of the writings of Swedenborg, both published and unpublished, undertaken by the editor of these Documents in 1865 and 1869, in accordance with instructions from the General Convention of the New Church in America, and the American Swedenborg Document Committee. Details of this mission are contained in the Preface to the first Volume of the present work. The editor's labours began in Sweden, and extended to Germany, Italy, and England. In Sweden he explored the Library of the Academy of Sciences, the Royal Library, and the Archives of the College of Mines in Stockholm, and the Cathedral-library in Linköping; and he consulted, besides, the university libraries of Upsal and Lund. In Germany he examined the literary and epistolary remains of C. F. Nordenskjöld,20 which are preserved in Berlin by his youngest son Otto von Nordenskjöld; and likewise the literary remains of Dr. Im. Tafel of Tübingen, who had collected much valuable information for a future bibliography of Swedenborg's writings. In Italy he instituted a search in most of the leading libraries of the peninsula for a physiological treatise on the Fibres and the Animal Spirits, which Swedenborg is reputed to have published in Rome in 1740. The result of this search is contained in Document 313, under the year 1740. In England, finally, he finished his researches into the history of those Swedenborg MSS., which Messrs. C. F. Nordenskjöld20 and C. B. Wadström36 brought to England in 1783 and 1788, and which in course of time came into the possession of the Swedenborg Society of London. The results of this investigation are contained in Document 309.
The aim of the editor has been to furnish in this Section definite information respecting every line written by Swedenborg, so far as any trace of it has been preserved; and thus, among other things, to give a minute description of all the MSS. which, after Swedenborg's death in 1772, were consigned by his heirs to the care of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm--with a view of settling the much debated question as to whether any of these MSS. have been lost.
The final result of the editor's investigation is this: that absolutely none of the MSS. deposited by Swedenborg's heirs in the Academy of Sciences have been lost, and that at the present day they are all on the shelves of its library, with the exception of Vol. IX in no. 11 of Document 304, A, (one part of Codex 113 in the "Official Catalogue of the Swedenborg MSS.," Document 307), and Vol. II in no. 12 of Document 304, A, (Codex 50 in the "Official Catalogue"); of these two codices, however, copies were prepared under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld, and these copies have since been printed under the auspices of the Swedenborg Society of London. It is, however, a matter of regret that some of the letters described in subdivision C of Document 304 have been lost; although of the most important of them copies have been preserved, (see Document 312).
The only MSS., or rather parts of MSS., known to exist at the time of Swedenborg's death, and of which no copies have been preserved, are (1) a record of his dreams from 1737 to 1739, (see Document 304, subdivision B, no. 9, p. 784), and (2) a portion of the appendix to the "True Christian Religion," entitled "Coronis," &c., concerning which the editors of the "New Jerusalem Magazine" for 1790 declare, "that, as they were informed by Dr. Messiter, in whose hands this valuable MS. was left, nearly one half of the copy had been mislaid and finally lost at the doctor's house" (see p. 224).
DOCUMENT 304.
CATALOGUE OF SWEDENBORG'S MSS. PREPARED BY HIS HEIRS IN 1772.
The following catalogue was printed in Stockholm in 1801, and again in 1820, as an appendix to Pernety's "Granskning of Svedenborg's lefnad och lra," under this title:
"Catalogue of the Complete MSS. of the late Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg, which, together with that part of his correspondence with concerns his published writings, are consigned to the Royal Academy of Sciences, that they may preserve them in their library with the care which their contents, the respect due to the departed, and the honour of his family may expect now and for ever."
A.
THEOLOGICAL WORKS.
1. The Apocalypse explained according to the spiritual sense, wherein are revealed the arcana which were predicted there, and which have hitherto remained concealed; quarto. Vols. I, II, and III, together fill 996 leaves. [Codices 107 to 109 in the "Official Catalogue of the Swedenborg MSS.," Document 308.]
2. Index to the Apocalypse Revealed. [Codex 103. Ibid.]
3. Three Volumes, folio, which probably contain the first draught of the Arcana Coelestia published in eight volumes.
The first volume contains in 1713 paragraphs an explanation of Genesis, from the beginning to the 16th verse of chapter xxxv, inclusive. [Codex 59. Ibid.]
The second volume contains: 1. A continuation of Genesis to the end in 1511 paragraphs; 2. An explanation of Exodus which begins with no. 1516, and is continued to verse 28 of chapter xxviii, inclusive. [Codex 60. Ibid.]
The third volume contains: 1. A continuation of Exodus in 4450 paragraphs; 2. An explanation of the Book of Joshua from no. 4451 to no. 4636; 3. The Book of Judges from no. 4637 to 4856; 4. Ruth from no. 4857 to 4860; 5. The first Book of Samuel from no. 4861 to 5039; 6. The second Book of Samuel from no. 5040 to 5180; 7. The first Book of Kings from no. 5181 to 5315; 8. The second Book of Kings from no. 5316 to 5345; 9 and 10. The first and second Books of Chronicles from no. 5346 to 5409; 11. Leviticus from no. 5410 to 6496; 12. Numbers, from no. 6497 to 7648; 13. Deuteronomy, from no. 7649 to 7762. [Codex 61. Ibid.]
4. A volume in folio containing an explanation, 1. Of Isaiah from p. 1 to p. 77; 2. Of Jeremiah from p. 78 to p. 107. [Codex 62. Ibid.]
5. Some sheets in royal folio, bound in Turkish paper, and paged from p. 332 to p. 370 inclusive, which contain a short exposition of all the Prophets, and the Psalms of David. [Codex 1. Ibid.]
6. A Hieroglyphic Key to the mysteries of natural and spiritual things by the way of representations and correspondences; 48 pages, 4to. [Codex 79. Ibid.]
7. Six volumes in royal folio, numbered on their backs with Roman figures; all bound in parchment with the exception of Volume IV, which is without binding, but which is proved to be the fourth in order by the paragraphs running on in consecutive order in Vol. V. These ample volumes are for the most part arranged in the form of dictionaries, and their contents seem to be as follows:
Vols. I & II are Indexes of a portion of the Old Testament. [Codex 4, and Codex 2. Ibid.--See Document 310, Codex 4.]
Vol. III. is a similar Index of a portion of the New Testament. [Codex 5. Ibid.]
Vols. IV and V seem to contain, in numbered paragraphs, detached materials and memorabilia for the author's theological works; the numbers are arranged so that the beginning is wanting, yet on the last page of Vol. II they begin with no. 206, and then run backwards to no. 972, which is about the middle of the volume. The continuation follows in the middle of Vol. IV, commencing with no. 973, and proceeding t the end as far as no. 1789; with no. 1790 the volume is afterwards commenced at the beginning and it runs on in the middle of the volume. This same collection no. 3428 to no. 6093 is afterwards continued in Vol. V. [Codices 2 and 3. Ibid.]
Vol. VI is also an extensive Index, probably to the author's own collections, or to one of his works; but it was either rewritten by him, or used for some particular purpose, since line after line is crossed out throughout the whole volume. [Codex 112. Ibid.]
8. A volume of the same kind, but without number, which seems to contain an Index to the Prophet Isaiah. The contents of this volume also are uniformly crossed out. [Codex 6. Ibid.]
9. Still another volume of the same size and binding which is probably an Index to the printed Apocalypsis Revelata. [Codex 7. Ibid.]
10. One volume, folio, bound in parchment, which is an Index of memorabilia contained in the above-named Volume V. [Codex 63. Ibid.--See Document 310, Codex 63.]
11. Ten volumes, oblong quarto, bound in parchment, with Roman figures on their backs, running from 1 to 10 inclusive. Concerning these volumes the following particulars have to be noted:
Vol. I bears the following title on page 1: "Names of men, lands, kingdoms, and towns," and it seems to contain a nomenclature of the names in the Old Testament. [Codex 39. Ibid.]
Vols. II and III seem to be Indexes of some of the author's own works. [Codices 40 and 41. Ibid.]
In Vol. IV towards the close begins a system of paging which runs through Vols. V, VI, and VII, and it stops in Vol. VIII with page 1301.
[Codices 40 to 45; Vol. VIII is probably Codex 37; see Document 310, Codex 37.]
In Vol. IX, a new system of paging begins, which is continued in Vol. X to page 462. [Vol. X is Codex 113; Vol. IX is missing.]
12. Seven volumes of the same size, and bound in a similar manner, which run from 1 to 7 inclusive, but in respect to their contents are not connected; they seem to be numbered simply for the purpose of registration. The following seem to be the contents of these volumes:
Vol. I appears to be a memorandum-book of the technical terms which occur in some of the sciences; it contains also annotations and excerpts from various authors, with some of Swedenborg's own thoughts, as for instance on "Harmonious Correspondence," on pp. 205, 220, 235, 250, 270; on "Geometrical Arithmetic" on p. 222; the Lord's prayer, on p. 224; on "Musical Harmony," p. 247; on "Optics," p. 229; the arrangement of subjects in the "Animal Economy," and the "Animal Kingdom," pp. 253, 262, 268; the nature of "Natural Religion, and how it degenerates from true religion," p. 267; the "Representation of Oracles," p. 267. This volume contains 276 pages, and is furnished with an Index. [Codex 36. Ibid.]
Vol. II was found to contain an Index to the Concordia pia, published in Leipzig in 1756, 8vo. [Codex 50. Ibid., which is missing; see Document 310, Codex 50].
Vol. III contains on 180 pages sentences from the Sacred Scriptures collected under various heads, such as Apostles, Miracles, Christ, God the Father and the Son, &c. [Codex 49. Ibid.]
Vol. IV seems to be an Index of some MS. treating of "Conjugial Love." [Codex 46. Ibid.]
Vol. V consists of 274 pages, mostly blank; but on p. 3 there are some notes on the Council of Trent; on p. 7 some of the author's own memorabilia respecting his conversations with Calvin; on p. 111 the God and Saviour Jesus Christ is treated of; on p. 201 the Doctrine of the New Church is contained in a summary. [Codex 48. Ibid.]
Vol. VI consists likewise of blank paper, and seems also to have been intended for an Index of the same kind as Vol. II. [Codex 47. Ibid.]
Vol. IV contains first an Index of Part II of the "Animal Economy," but afterwards a collection of Bible sentences respecting the "Second Coming of the Messiah, for the purpose of bringing back the Jews," in 94 paragraphs; secondly, respecting the "Kingdom of God," first in 210, and then in 14, paragraphs; and lastly respecting Babylon in 6 paragraphs. [Codex 38. Ibid.]
13. A little volume, 8vo, bound in calf, filled with memorabilia, of which each is under its own head; it contains 134 pages. [Codex 95. Ibid.]
14. Three large parcels, in which, according to their superscriptions, is contained the first systematic composition of the Arcana Coelestia and the Apocalypse Revealed. [Codices 8-10, 15-35, 80 Ibid.]
15. The Latin version of the New Testament by Sebastian Schmidius,301 containing some annotations from Swedenborg's own hand. Likewise a portion of the Latin translation of the Old Testament with some of his MS. annotations. [Codices 89 and 90. Ibid.]
16. Another parcel; see no. 13 among the "Philosophical Works." [It contained codices 11 to 14. Ibid.; probably also the originals of the works entitled: "Canons;" "The Lord and the Athanasian Creed and the original of the five memorable relations mentioned in Document 305, no. 9, G.]
B.
PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS.
1. The Magnet, and its different properties, 273 pages, 4to. [Codex 81. Ibid.]
2. The separation of silver and copper, which is called "Segerarbete," 263 pages, 4to. [Codex 84. Ibid.]
3. Sulphar and pyrites, 229 pages, 4to. [Codex 82. Ibid.]
4. Vitriol, and the various methods of boiling it, 446 pages, 4to. [Codex 85, Ibid.]
5. The common salt, i. e. rock-salt, sea-salt, and salt obtained from salt springs, 343 pages, 4to. [Codex 83. Ibid.]
6. Matters belonging to Geometry and Algebra, 279 pages, 4to. [Codex 86. Ibid.]
7. Principia Rerum Naturalium, deduced from experience and geometry, or established a priori and a posteriori, 569 pages, 4to. [Codex 77. Ibid.]
8. Three short transactions: 1. On the Animal Spirit, 24 pages; 2. On Sensation or the passion of the body, in 13 paragraphs; 3. On action, in 35 paragraphs. [Contained in Codex 74. Ibid.]
9. One volume, 4to, of 760 pages. On page 1 is written the following title: "Animal Economy, or transactions of both parts of man, demonstrated here in respect to the brain, the prolonged marrow, the spinal marrow, and the nerves, analytically, physically, and philosophically." The contents of this volume, however, are not continuous, but intermixed with other matters, viz:--
(a) A description of Swedenborg's travels abroad: In the year 1710, p. 498; in 1721, p. 503; in 1733 from pp. 3 to 39, again from pp. 45 to 49, and finally from pp. 55 to 115; in 1736, 1737, 1738, 1739, from pp. 404 to 542, from pp. 730 to 733 and again on p. 737.
(b) A comparison of the general Ontology and Cosmology of Christopher Wolf's with the Principia Rerum Naturalium of Swedenborg, p. 41.
(c) The calcareous waters of Hungary, pp. 41 to 46.
(d) The attributes of the point, pp. 49 to 65.
(e) The mechanism of the soul and body, together with several papers on ontology, psychology, and anatomy, and various excerpts from pp. 116 to 495, and again from pp. 550 to 711, with an Index from pp. 712 to 729.
(f) Descriptions of several of Swedenborg's dreams during the years 1736, 1737, 1738, 1739, and 1740, pp. 730 to 733, and again pp. 741 to 745.* [Codex 88. Ibid.]
* In the copy of this catalogue printed in the year 1801, the following foot-note is added, "These leaves have been removed from the volume, and are in the safe keeping of the family."
10. Several larger and smaller fragments, written in various styles of handwriting, yet apparently by Swedenborg himself; they seem to belong to his "OEconomia Naturalis," and to his "Regnum Animale." [Codices 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 65, 74. Ibid.]
11. A Fragment on common sensation, and its influx into the soul. [Probably the fragment on the "Soul," bound up in Codex 74. Ibid.]
12. Two short transactions, but incomplete, on the muscles of the face, and the human ear. [Bound up in Codex 58. Ibid.]
13. Several mixed fragments tied up in one parcel, but consisting of two bundles. On one is written "After 1745," on the other "Before 1745."
C.
LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS.*
* This collection of letters is analyzed in Document 312.
The following documents are tied up in one bundle and numbered:
1. Some papers that arrived from London in the month of September, which are probably the last written by Assessor Swedenborg's own hand.
2. First draughts and memorials on political subjects.
3. Correspondence and controversial writings with Nordencrantz, the late Councillor of Commerce, and President lreich.
4. Letters from Bishop Doctor Jesper Swedberg.
5. Letters from Lewis, Printer, London.
6. Letters from John Hart, Printer, London.
7. Letters from P. Roger, Doctor of Divinity, and Madame Johanna Corleva.
8. Letters from Hekel, Bookseller, Dresden.
9. Letters from Jrgen Schneider, Hamburg.
10. Letters from Joachim Wretman, Amsterdam.
11. Letters from Margareta Ahlstrm, London.
12. Letters from Zacharias Strmberg, Amsterdam.
13. Some of Swedenborg's own letters and answers to letters in first draughts.
14. Various letters from abroad, and among them, some from the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, and from Christopher Wolf.
15. Letters from his relations and friends, especially from his brothers-in-law, Archbishop Doctor Ericus Benzelius, and Dean J. Unge.
16. A letter from Baron L. von Hatzel, Chevalier Grand Croix de l'Ordre de St. George, together with a letter from His Excellency, Senator, Count Gustaf Bonde, dated August 7, 1760, with Assessor Swedenborg's answer to the last letter.
17 and 18. Letters from Hermaun Oboreit, John Caspar Lavater, and Christian Tuxen.
19. Letters of Abbot F. C. tinger for the years 1765, 1766, 1767, 1768, with three answers to these letters in first draughts.
20. Four letters from various persons.
21. First draughts of several letters.
22. Letters from Polhem, Klingenstjerna, A. Celsius, N. Schenmark, the Universities of Upsal and bo, and from several bishops.
23. Decrees, orders, with several other papers concerning the life of Assessor Swedenborg.
Stockholm, October 27, 1772.
In the name of Swedenborg's heirs:
E. WENNBERG.
C. BENZELSTJERNA.268
DOCUMENT 305.
A LIST OF SWEDENBORG'S MSS. PUBLISHED IN 1752 BY A. J. PERNETY.34*
* See his French translation of Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell," published in Berlin in 1782 under the title: Les Merveilles du Ciel et de l'Enfer," &c., Vol. II, pp. 378 to 382.
This list, we may take it for granted, was forwarded to Pernety by A. Nordenskjöld (see Introduction to Document 6, Vol. I, p. 52 et seq.); and it describes the condition of these MSS. before they were catalogued, and before the latter gentleman had them properly bound at his own expense.
The theological MSS. of Swedenborg only are noticed in this list; in the philosophical, Nordenskjöld does not seem to have been interested at this time.
1. "A summary explanation of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, in 2352 paragraphs; of Joshua and Judges, in 405; of the books of Samuel and Kings in 448. Likewise an explanation of Genesis and Exodus; consisting altogether of 3 vols., folio, bound. [Codices 59 to 62 in the Official Catalogue, Document 308.]
"The author seems to have composed these volumes before the Arcana Coelestia, and before being called to his office.
2. "A summary exposition of Isaiah and Jeremiah, in 106 pages; one volume, folio, bound. [Codex 63. Ibid.]
3. "A summary exposition of all the prophets and of the psalms of David, with two tables; about 50 pages, folio. [Codex 1. Ibid.]
"This was probably written after 1758. The author said that the angels were present when this MS. was read, and they expressed their joy at his being willing to publish it for the good of the Lord's Church. Nos. 239, 707, and several other quotations in the 'Apocalypse Revealed,' are from this MS.
4. "An alphabetical Index, as well of the subjects as of the names contained in fill the books of the revealed Word, both of the Old and the New Testaments; several volumes, folio. [Codices 4, 5, 39, 40, and 41.]
"This Index is very exact; texts of Scripture are found there under certain heads, such as: Love, Apostles, Miracles, Christ, God the Father, the Son, Babylon, &c.
5. "Alphabetical Index of the subjects contained in the printed work, entitled: Apocalypsis Revelata. It is in quarto, and written out for the press. [Codex 103.]
6. "An alphabetical Index of a part, and perhaps of the whole, of the Arcana Coelestia. [Codices 112 and 113.]
7. "An alphabetical Index of the treatise on Conjugial Love; which is probably more extensive than the work which was subsequently printed under that name. [Codex 46.]
8. "Index of the work entitled Concordia pia, Leipzig, 1756. Remarks on the Council of Trent. Memorabilia of the author's conversations with Calvin. Concerning God the Saviour Jesus Christ. Doctrine of the New Church, &c. [Codex 48.]
9. "A collection of several very curious MSS. among these are the following:
(a) "The Last Judgment, which was written after the publication of the work bearing this title, and after the Continuation of the same. [Codex 12.]
(b) "Charity. [Codex 11.]
(c) "The Divine Love; and the Divine Wisdom, containing articles on love and charity, and wisdom and faith, and the angelic idea respecting the creation of the universe by the Lord. [Codex 13.]
(d) "On Marriage. This seems to be a first draught of the printed work; many things are contained in it, which are not in the printed volume. [Codex 14.]
(e) AConcerning the Sacred Scripture. [This is contained in Codex 12.]
(f) "The Precepts of the Decalogue. [The outlines of this work are likewise contained in Codex 12.]
(g) "Some Memorabilia, written out for the press. [They are printed from a copy, in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1, pp. 124 to 133.]
10. "Another collection, containing
(a) "The outlines of a work entitled Ultimo de Miraculis. [Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix I, p. 168.]
(b) "Some things concerning Order, and Additions to the Brief Exposition of the doctrine of the New Church, which are to be added (qu addenda) in a translation in the English and French languages. [We do not know what Nordenskjöld means by the MS. on Order, unless he means thereby the abstract concerning the "Abomination of desolation, the consummation of the age, and the fulness of time, together with a tract called "An Invitation to the New Church;" all of which are printed in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1 (pp. 137 to 160), from a copy prepared under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld, and which are contained in Codex 50, now lost; see Document 310, Codex 50. The Additions to the Brief Exposition, &c., are contained in Codex 48, see Document 313, no. 138.]
(c) "First draught of the Coronis to the True Christian Religion, which was recently printed in London from the original MS. [It was published from a copy prepared under A. Nordenskjöld's superintendence, in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1, pp. 161 to 169.]
(d) "Rough copies of letters written a short time before the author's death; two of these are addressed to the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel.
11. "Hieroglyphic Key to natural and spiritual mysteries by way of representations and correspondences; 48 pages, 4to. [Codex 79.]
"This MS. seems to have been written by the author before his formal revelations; he displays here a profound penetration and a rare sagacity.
12. "A large collection of Memorabilia with their Index; three large volumes, folio. [Codices 2 and 3; the Index is contained in Codices 42 to 45, and 63.]
"In these Memorabilia are also contained many conversations on the subjects of the spiritual world, with the dates when certain things happened there to Swedenborg.
A great many memorabilia which have been introduced into the Arcana Coelestia seem to have been taken from this collection, or placed in that work, the names of the persons and the dates having been suppressed. Curious and remarkable things occur there concerning Elizabeth, Queen of England[?], Queens Christine and Ulrica Eleonora of Sweden, Peter the Great, Sixtus V, Charles XII, Louis XIV, Frederic I of Sweden, and very many private persons.
12. "Among these MSS. there are also the entire MSS. of the printed works, entitled: Arcana Coelestia [Codices 8 to 10, 15 to 26, which, however, do not contain the entire MS. of that work], and Apocalypsis Revelata [not Revelata, but Explicata; it is contained in Codices 27 to 35].
"These MSS, seem to be more extensive, at least in respect to the numbered paragraphs, than the printed works. It therefore seems to be worth while to collate the two. [Nordenskjöld, at that time, does not seem to have been aware of the distinction between the larger work, Apocalypsis Explicata, and the smaller work, Apocalypsis Revelata.]
"These MSS. were put in boxes in London during the last illness of the author, and sent to Mr. Lindegren,117 a merchant, by whom they were forwarded to Stockholm. There two bishops, who were Swedenborg's heirs desired to throw them into the fire; but God provided that this should not take place. The English clergyman, from whose hand the illustrious author received the communion before his death, gave an assurance that he did not know of any other MSS. One, however remained in London in the hands of Dr. Messiter, which was subsequently printed by the care of Mr. Aug[ustus] N[ordenskld] under the following title: Coronis seu appendix ad Veram Christianam Religionem, in qua agitur de quatuor Ecclesiis in hac tellure a creatione Mundi, deque illorum periodis et communicatione. Perhaps a number of others may have been dispersed in a similar manner; for Swedenborg was an indefatigable man who worked day and night.
"Doctor Beyer, who had been a constant student of the works of Swedenborg, compiled a work with the following title: Index Initialis in omnia opera theologica Swedenborgii, two volumes, quarto, Amsterdam, 1779.
The same Doctor wrote on February 10, 1776, to Mr. Aug. N., asking him to see whether there was not, among the MSS. deposited in the Library of the Academy, "A Relation of what had taken place in the world of spirits since the Last Judgment in 1757, and "an additional refutation of the errors of modern theology." From what is said on these subjects in the "True Christian Religion," 91 and 123, we are justified in concluding that several other MSS. of Swedenborg have either been dispersed, or lost. "Among the printed works of the author there are also the following:*
* This seems to be an addition made by Pernety himself. The works marked b, c, d were never printed, at least not under the titles given above. Concerning those marked b and c see Document 284, B.
(a) "A reply to a letter addressed to me by a friend. [Document 2.]
(b) "Angelic Wisdom respecting life.
(c) Angelic Wisdom respecting God's omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, eternity, and infinity.
(d) "Divine and magical miracles.
"As these works, however, are not included in the list given by Mr. Sandels in his Eulogium of Swedenborg [Vol. I, p. 25], I did not consider myself justified in adding them to his list;* besides I knew neither the place nor the time of their publication.
* Pernety published a French translation of the Eulogium here referred to in Vol. I of his translation of "Heaven and Hell."
"A collection of Swedenborg's letters was printed in London as an appendix to his work: 'The Intercourse between the Soul and the Body,' which was translated into English, and furnished with notes by the Rev. Thomas Hartley, as may be seen in the letter addressed to me from that town by Mr. Springer, and which was printed by me [in Vol. I] after the collection of anecdotes respecting the life of Swedenborg." [See Document 261, nos. 5 and 14.]
DOCUMENT 306.
A LIST OF SWEDENBORG'S MSS. PUBLISHED IN 1785 BY B. CHASTANIER.222*
* This list is contained in a "Prospectus for printing by subscription the posthumous works of the Honourable and learned Emanuel Swedenborg," which is appended to a French translation of the work on the "Intercourse between the Soul and the Body," published in London in 1785.
Another list, not quite so complete, was printed by Mr. R. Hindmarsh about the same time in a "Catalogue of the Printed Works of Emanuel Swedenborg in chronological order.
This list, like the preceding one, was composed by A. Nordenskjöld, and seems to contain the results of a further examination of Swedenborg's MSS., made after 1782.
1. A general Index of the subjects and names treated of in the Word of God. [Codices 4, 5, 39, 40, and 41 in the Official Catalogue.]
2. An Index of the subjects contained in the Arcana Coelestia. [Codices 112 and 113, ibid.]
3. An Index of a large collection of Memorabilia, which has never yet been published. [Codices 42 to 45, 63, ibid.]
4. An Index of the subjects treated of in the Apocalypsis Revelata. [Codex 103, ibid.]
5. An Index of a special treatise on Marriage, which was not published by the author. [Codex 46, ibid.]
6. An Index exhibiting the internal sense of a portion of the prophetical Word. [Contained in Codex 1, ibid.]
7. A particular Index of the Bible passages contained in the Apocalypsis Explicata, concerning which see below. [It is doubtful whether this Index, which was printed in Hindmarsh's edition of that work, was prepared by the author himself.]
8. An Index of a book entitled: Concordia pia. [Codex 50, which has disappeared, but the contents of which are preserved.]
9. A collection of Memorabilia, indicated above in no. 3, which extends from the year 1746 [1747?] to the year 1764. [Codices 2 and 3.]
10. An explanation of the historical books of the Word of God, as well as of the prophets Isaish and Jeremiah, [Codices 59 to 62.]
11. A summary exposition of the spiritual sense of the prophets and the psalms of David, to which the Index mentioned in no. 6. belongs. [Codex 1.]
12. The Apocalypsis Explicata, which is a much more extensive work than the printed Apocalypsis Revelata. [Codices 107 to 109, and also Codices 27 to 35.]
13. Various subjects concerning the Last Judgment and the spiritual world, never printed before. [Codex 12.]
14. A tract on Charity. [Codex 11.]
15. The principal Canons of the New Church. [This work was printed from a copy brought to England by Wadström in 1788; the original has disappeared.]
16. (a) Various observations respecting the Lord and the Athanasian Creed. [This work also was printed from a copy brought to England at the same time, the original of which has disappeared.]
(b) Various observations respecting the Word. [Codex 12.]
(c) Various observations respecting the Divine Love, and the Divine Wisdom. [Codex 13.]
(d) Various observations respecting Marriage. [Codex 14.]
17. A supplement to the Coronis to the True Christian Religion. [Copied from Codex 48, and printed from that copy by Dr. Im. Tafel in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, appendix 1; see Document 310, Codex 45, no. 6.]
18. Five memorabilia of great importance. [Printed from a copy sent to England in 1785 in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1, pp. 124 to 133.]
19. Precious fragments of the OEconomia Regni Animalis, and the Regnum Animale, among which there is a most excellent treatise on the generative organs of both sexes, and the process of generation itself. [Codices 38, 53, 54, 55, 57, 65, 74, 88.]
20. Some fragments of the work entitled, "The Worship and Love of God." [Codices 51 and 68.]
21. A Hieroglyphic Key to spiritual and natural mysteries by way of correspondences and representations. [Codex 79.]
22. Fragments of some work treating on Mineralogy. [Codices 81 to 85.]
23. A Journal of Swedenborg's Travels. [Contained in Codex 88, and constituting Documents 204 to 206 in the present volume.]
24. A collection of the author's dreams from 1736 to 1755. [See analysis of Codex 88, no. xv in Document 310.]
DOCUMENT 307.
FIRST CLASSIFIED CATALOGUE OF THE SWEDENBORG MSS. IN THE LIBRARY OP THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN STOCKHOLM, PREPARED IN 1787.
This catalogue was prepared by Johan Bjrnstjerna at the instance of the "Philanthropic Exegetic Society" of Stockholm (see Note 20, Vol. I, p. 622). In an account of that Society contained in "Antekningar om Finska Alchemister;" by A. E. Arppe, Helsingfors, 1870, we read (p. 45), "Bjrnstjerna is now engaged on the catalogue, which will be very fine." In addition to his catalogue of Swedenborg's MSS., this gentleman prepared a complete catalogue of Swedenborg's published writings. Both these catalogues were originally in Count Engeström's Library, but they are now preserved in the Royal Library in Stockholm.
CATALOGUE OF SWEDENBORG'S LIBRARY, PRESERVED IN THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN STOCKHOLM.
A.
IN LARGE OBLONG FOLIO.
1. Sensus Propheticus, or an explanation of the Prophets and Psalms.
2, 3. Memorabilia, in three volumes, nos. 149 to 6093.
4. Index Biblicus Veteris Testamenti, two volumes.
5. Do. Novi Testamenti.
6. Do. of Genesis and Isaiah, crossed out.
7. An Index to the printed Apocalypsis Revelata.
8. Various papers belonging to the first draught of the Arcana Coelestia.
9. Arcana Coelestia, Genesis xxiii-xxxlv.
10. Do. Genesis xvi-xxi.
11. De Charitate.
12. De Ultimo Judicio et Mundo Spirituali.
13. De Divino Amore.
14. De Conjugio.
B.
IN SMALLER OBLONG FOLIO.
15-19. Arcana Coelestia, Genesis xxv to 1.
20-26. Do. Exodus i to xl.
27-35. Apocalypsis Explicata, Chapters i to xix.
36. Various excerpts from Aristotle, Plato, Leibnitz, &c.
37. Index of various philosophical matters.
38. Index of physiological matters.
39. Index Biblicus of proper names.
40, 41. Index Biblicus.
42-45. Index of the Memorabilia of no. 2.
46. Index of a MS. on Conjugial Love, which cannot be found.
47. Index of the Concordia Book.
48. Notes concerning Calvin, &c.
49. Biblical Sentences collected under leading heads.
50. An Index of the Concordia Book, with several interesting matters Swedenborg wrote just before his death.
* 51. De Cultu et Amore Dei, Parts II and III.
* The numbers marked with an asterisk (*) are printed.
52. Swedenborg's Letters to Beyer.
53. Various anatomical and Physiological matters.
54. Various Physiological and Metaphysical subjects.
55. Various Anatomical and Physiological matters.
56. Political writings of Swedenborg at the Diet.
57, 58. Various Anatomical and Physiological matters.
59-62. An Explanation of the historical and prophetical Word of the Old Testament. 4 Vols.
63. An Index of the Memorabilia in nos. 2 and 95.
C.
IN QUARTO.*
* The numbers marked with an asterisk (*) are printed.
*64. Biblia Hebraica, van der Hooght's edition, Vol. II.
65. Anatomical and Physiological matters.
*66. All the works of Swedenborg published in 1758.
*67. On Longitude.
*68. De Cultu et Amore Dei, Part I.
*69. Regnum Animale. Parts I to III.
*70. Apocalypsis Revelata.
*71. Vera Christiana Religio.
*72. De Commercio Anim et Corporis.
*73. Biblia Hebraica, van der Hooght's edition, Vol. I.
74. Anatomical and Physiological matters.
*75. De Amore Conjugiali.
*76, 77. OEconomia Animalis. Parts I and II.
*78. Sammunaria Expositio.
79. Clavis Hieroglyphica.
80. Arcana Coelestia, [Genesis,] chapter xxii.
81. De Magnete.
82. De Sulphure.
83. De Sale communi.
84. On the secretion of metals.
85. De Vitriolo.
86. Geometrica et Algebraica.
87. Principia, Part I.
88. Various Anatomical and Philosophical subjects, with descriptions of travels.
89, 90. Sebastian Schmidius' Latin Bible.
*91. Brief Exposition, in an English translation.
*92, 93. Ddalus Hyperboreus. 6 parts in two volumes.
* The numbers marked with an asterisk (*) are printed.
D.
IN OCTAVO.
*94. De Infinito.
95. Collection of Memorabilia.
*96. Om Wattenens Hödg, &c. [See Document 313, no. 19.]
*97. Do. together with Om jordens Gang och Stand. [See Document 313, no. 18.]
98. Prodromus Principiorum.
DOCUMENT 308.
OFFICIAL CATALOGUE OF THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY IN THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
This Catalogue was prepared by J. C. Wilcke,270 who was secretary of the Academy from 1784 to 1736. The precise time of its preparation is not mentioned; but it must have been compiled after Bjrnstjerna's, since Wilcke marked several MSS. as missing, which the former had found in the library.
A.
CATALOGUE OF THE HONOURABLE ASSESSOR SWEDENBORG'S WRITINGS, WHICH BY HIS HEIRS WERE PRESENTED TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.*
*"The words in parenthesis () have been added by Prof. Sjsten," who was the Secretary of the Academy from 1796 to 1808.
N.B. A great part of the MSS. Nordenskjöld,35 the inspector of mines, had bound at his own expense.
Swedenborg's writings follow here in the order in which they are numbered in the Library, the numbers being pasted on the backs of the books:
No. 1. Sensus Propheticus.
2. Memorabilia.} Borrowed by Director Wadström.36
3. Do. }Borrowed by Director Wadström.
4. Index Biblicus Veteris Testamenti.
5. Do. Novi Testamenti.
6. Do. of Genesis and Isaiah.
7. Index of Memorabilia.
8-10. Arcana Coelestia.
11. De Charitate.
12. De Ultimo Judicio.
13. De Divino Amore.
14. De Conjugio.
15-26. See no. 8.
27-35. Apocalypsis Explicata.
36. Excerpts from Aristotle, Plato, &c.
37. Index of various philosophical matters.
38. Index of physiological matters.
39. Index Biblicus of proper names.
40, 41. Index Biblicus.
42-45. Index of Memorabilia.
46. Index of a MS. on Conjugial Love.
47. Index of the Concordia Book.
48. Notes on Calvin; (five leaves are cut out.)
49. Biblical Sentences collected under leading heads.
Borrowed by Nordenskjöld.
50. Index of the Corcordia Book. Borrowed by Nordenskjöld.
No. *51. De Cultu et Amore Dei. Borrowed by Nordenskjöld; see no. 68.
* The numbers marked with asterisks (*) are printed works.
52. Letters to Beyer. Borrowed by Wadström.
53. Anatomical and Physiological matters. (Incomplete; it begins with no. 2.) Do. nos. 55, 57, 58.
54. Physiological and Metaphysical matters.
55. See no. 53. (Five entire leaves are wanting.)
56. Papers read at the Diet.
57. Philosophia universalium, &c.
58. See no. 53.
59-61. Explanation of the historical Word of the Old Testament.
62. Explanation of Isaiah and Jeremiah.
63. (Borrowed by Nordenskjöld.)
*64. Van der Hooght's Bible, Vol. II.
65. Anatomical and Physiological matters. (26 leaves are missing in the beginning.)
*66. Nova Hierosolyma, &c.
*67. Methodus inveniendi Longitudines.
*68. See no. 51.
*69. Regnum Animale.
*70. Apocalypsis Revelata.
*71. Vera Christiana Religio.
*72. Commercium Anim et Corporis.
*73. See no. 64, (Vol. I.)
74. See no. 65. (Begins with p. 65.)
*75. De Amore conjugiali et Scortatorio.
*76. } OEconomia Regni Animalis.
*77. } OEconomia Regni Animalis.
*78. Summaria Expositio Doctrin Nov Ecclesi.
79. Clavis Hieroglyphica.
80. See no. 8.
81. De Magnete.
82. De Sulphure.
83. De Sale communi.
84. De Secretione argenti et cupri.
85. De Vitriolo.
86. Geometrica et Algebraicai
87. Principiorum Rerum Naturalium, Part I.
88. See no. 65.
*89. Schmidius" Bible, Vol. I. Title-page is wanting.
*90. Do. Vol. II.
*91. Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church.
*92, 93. Ddalus Hyperboreus.
*94. Prodromus Philosophi Ratiocinantis.
95. Taken by Nordenskjöld. (Not found.)
*96. Om Vattnets Ebb och flod.
*97. Do.
*98. Prodromus Principiorum rerum naturalium.
[The following nos. were added by Prof. Sjsten:]
99. Beskrifning fver Swenska Masungnar.
*100. Miscellanea Obervata.
*101. Camena Borea.
*102. De la Nouvelle Jrusalem, 8vo.
103. Index rerum in Apocalypis Revelata.
*104. Clavis Hieroglyphica.
*105. Summaria Expositio Doctrin clestis. Duplicate.
*106. Prodromus Philosophi Rationcinantis. Duplicate.
[After 1843 were added the following nos:]
107-109. Apocalypsis Explicata. 3 vols. 4to.
110. Index to the Spiritual Diary, in folio. [See no. 63.]
111. Diarium Spirituale. [See no. 95.]
112. Complete Index to the Arcana Coelestia; large oblong folio.
113. Index to the earlier volumes of the Arcana Coelestia, Vol. I; small oblong folio.
[At the close of this catalogue Secretary Wilcke made the following statement:]
Nordenskjöld, the Inspector of Mines, has likewise borrowed:
A complete Index to the Arcana Coelestia, 1 vol.
Do. to the earlier volumes, 2 vols.
An Index to the Apocalypsis Revelata [see no. 103.]
Besides, Mr. Nordenskjöld will have to account for all the MSS. that may be missing.
B.
REPORT OF AN INVENTORY OF THE SWEDENBORGIAN DEPOSIT, TAKEN IN 1841.
The following report of an inventory taken by the Secretary of the Academy, Jac. Berzelius, is appended to the official catalogue:
"The undersigned, in conjunction with Assessor P. Lagerhjelm, took an inventory of the Swedenborgian deposit, according to the above catalogue, on October 27, 1841, and found on hand all the books and MSS. recorded therein, with the exception of nos. 2, 3, 49, 50, 52, 63, and 95, concerning which the catalogue states that they were borrowed either by Mr. Wadström or Mr. Nordenskjöld, and that they have not been returned by these gentlemen.
"Considering the many manuscripts which are found to be missing on comparing the above catalogue with the original printed catalogue [Document 304], it seems probable that when the Academy, or its Secretary, accepted the offer of Nordenskjöld, the inspector of mines, to have the MSS. bound at his expense (see notice at the beginning of the above catalogue), all the MSS. were not returned, after they had been bound; wherefore the missing volumes were not entered into the catalogue which is in Wilcke's handwriting, and at the end of which it is stated that 'Nordenskjöld is responsible for all that is wanting.'
"JAC. BERZELIUS."271
DOCUMENT 309.
THE MISSING SWEDENBORG MSS., AND THEIR DISCOVERY.
According to a statement of Secretary Berzelius in Document 308, B, the following MSS. were missing from the Library of the Academy of Sciences, on October 27, 1841, viz. nos. 2, 3, 49, 50, 52, 63, and 95 in the Official Catalogue, (Document 308, A). He states also that by a comparison of the Official Catalogue with the "printed catalogue" [Document 304], it is shown that many MSS. entrusted by Swedenborg's heirs to the Academy are missing, and that they were lost before Secretary Wilcke prepared the Official Catalogue, wherefore they were not embodied in the same.
Our object in the present document will be, first, to define clearly the character of each missing MS., and, secondly, to trace its history from 1772 to the present time.
A.
THE MISSING MSS. IDENTIFIED.
By a careful study and comparison of the catalogues which were prepared before Secretary Wilcke's Official Catalogue (Document 308, A), we obtain the following description of the MSS, which were marked as missing by Secretary Berzelius in 1841, (see Document 308, B.)
1 and 2.-"Nos. 2 and 3," are described in Documents 307 and 308, A, as "Memorabilia;" and in Document 304, where they appear as Vols. IV and V, of no. 7, they are discussed thus: "These volumes seem to contain in numbered paragraphs detached materials and memorabilia for the author's theological works; the numbers are so arranged, that the beginning is wanting, yet on the last page of Vol. II they begin with no. 206, and then run backwards to no. 972, which is about the middle of the volume.
The continuation follows in the middle of Vol. IV, commencing with no. 973, proceeding to the end as far as no. 1789; with no. 1790 the volume is afterwards commenced at the beginning, and it rims on to no. 3427 in the middle of the volume. This collection, from no. 3428 to no. 6093, is afterwards continued in Vol. V."
Of this MS. it is stated in the (Official Catalogue that "it was borrowed by Director Wadström."
3.-"No. 49," in Documents 307 and 308, A, is said to contain, "Biblical Sentences collected under leading heads;" and in Document 304, where it appears as Vol. III of no. 12, it is described as containing on 180 pages "Sentences from the Sacred Scripture collected under various heads, such as: Apostles, Miracles, Christ, God the Father and the Son, &c." This volume in Document 308, A, is stated to have been "borrowed by Nordenskjöld."
4."No. 50," in the Official Catalogue of the Academy, is described as "an Index to the Concordia Book," but in Bjrnstjerna's catalogue this important addition is made to it: "with several interesting matters Swedenborg wrote just before his death." This volume also, in the former catalogue, is said to have been "borrowed by Nordenskjöld."
5.-"No. 52" contains "Swedenborg's Letters to Beyer," and is stated to have been Aborrowed by Wadström."
6.--Concerning "No. 63," we read in the Official Catalogue, Document 308, 8, simply that it was borrowed by Nordenskjöld," but Bjrnstjerna, in Document 307, calls it "An Index to the Memorabilia in nos. 2 and 95." The same is confirmed by Document 304, where this volume appears as no. 10 among the "Theological Works," and where we read concerning it, that it is Aa volume in folio, bound in parchment, which is an Index to the memorabilia contained in Vol. V of no. 7."
7. "No. 95," in the Official Catalogue, is said to have been taken by Nordenskjöld;" but in Bjrnstjerna's catalogue it is described as a "Collection of Memorabilia," in 8vo.
In Document 304 we read further concerning it, "no. 13. A little volume in 8vo., bound in calf, filled with memorabilia, of which each is under its own head; it contains 134 pages."
By a careful comparison the following MSS. are found to be the only ones which occur in the catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs, (Document 304,) and which are not embodied in Secretary Wilcke's Official catalogue, (Document 308, A):
8. "No. 1. 'The Apocalypse Explained,' &c., 4to. Vols. I, II, and III, fill 996 leaves."
9. "No. 7, Vol. V," which is described as "a volume in royal folio, bound in parchment," and concerning which it is stated that "it, is also an extensive Index probably to the author's own collections, or to one of his works; but that it was either re-written by him, or used for some special purpose, since line after line is crossed out throughout the whole volume."
10 and 11. "No. 11, Vols. IX and X;" concerning these we read that they are "in oblong quarto, bound in parchment and with the Roman figures IX and X on their backs." We further read that "in Vol. IX a new system of paging begins, which is continued in Vol. X to p. 462."
As to the probable contents of the missing MSS., described in nos. 9 to 11, the following notice of Secretary Wilcke, at the close of his catalogue, throws light upon the subject, "Nordenskjöld, the inspector of mines, has likewise borrowed 'A complete Index to the Arcana Coelestia, 1 Vol.,' and 'Ditto. to the earlier volumes, 2 Vols;"' the presumption being that the three volumes containing Swedenborg's Index to the Arcana Coelestia, are the three missing volumes described in nos. 9 to 11.
B.
DOCUMENT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST INSTALMENT OF THE SWEDENBORG MSS. BROUGHT TO ENGLAND IN 1783.
Mr. A. E. Arppe in his essay entitled "Anteckningar om Finska Alchemister"* gives on p. 17 the following extract from a letter which A. Nordenskjöld wrote to Finland in 1782, "I continue to have copied out fairly each day some interesting MS. of Swedenborg which I borrow from Wargentin269 at the Academy of Sciences.
I get only such MSS. copied as we may expect to get published. Those which have already been copied out are as follows: 1. A Summary Exposition of the spiritual sense of the Prophets and Psalms, 2. An excellent and complete Index to the Apocalypse Revealed, which will certainly be printed, &c. Twenty copies of the book, which, as you are aware, I had printed in London, arrived in this country about six months ago."**
* See Bidrag til Knnedom af Finlands Natur och Folk," No. XVI, Helsingfors, 1870.
** The book to which a. Nordenskjöld alludes here is the Latin edition of Swedenborg's "Coronis to the True Christian Religion," which he had printed in London, in 1780, at his own expense.
The other MSS., which A. Nordenskjöld had copied about that time, were the "Hieroglyphic Key," and the "Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom" appended to the "Apocalypse Explained." besides several more specified on p. 806. These copies he was compelled by circumstances to give up to his brother C. F. Nordenskjöld,20 in whose debt he was, and who was then thinking of going to England, in order to have them printed there. In his book entitled: Considrations Gnrales sur le Christianisme Actuel," C. F. Nordenskjöld20 furnishes the following information, in respect to the mode in which some of the Swedenborg MSS. were conveyed by him to England. On p. 27i he says, "In the year 1783, Mr. Wargentin,269 Secretary of the Academy, permitted Swedenborg's MSS. to be transported by sea to London, in order that such as should be deemed proper might be published. Among these was one MS., written out clean for the press by the author, which was entitled: Apocalypsis Explicata. This was handed in London to Mr. Peckitt,229 the president of a society whose object it was to publish the works of that author." On p. 290 he explains his own connection with these MSS. thus: "I had heard that there was a Society in England whose object it was to print the writings of Swedenborg, and I had in my possession some rare manuscripts of that author, which I thought deserved the greatest attention. My ardent desire to see these MSS. printed caused me to brave all dangers."
As to the mode in which some of these MSS., or at least copies of them, came into his hands, he says finally on p. 190, where he speaks of himself as a traveller from Sweden: "A traveller from Sweden had conveyed to that Society some useful manuscripts of Swedenborg, among which there was a volume in folio, which had been copied at great expense; as there was only one man in Stockholm who was able to read the original Latin, and he charged heavily for his work. The traveller [C. F. Nordenskjöld] received this copy from one of his friends [A. Nordenskjöld] who was in his debt, and this copy partly liquidated his debt."
Concerning the printing of these MSS. we read in the "Samlingar fr Philantroper," the organ of the Exegetic Society of Stockholm, published in 1787, as follows:
"1783. Towards the close of this year a Swedish traveller brought several MSS. of Em. Swedenborg to England, and one of them, Clavis Hieroglyphica, &c. Mr. Tulk228 had printed at his own expense."*
* Mr. Hindmarsh says in "Appendix 1" to his "Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church:" "This work was printed in the original Latin by me at my own expense, from a manuscript copy received from Sweden in 1784." From this it would seem that Mr. Tulk purchased the MS. from C. F. Nordenskjöld, and that Mr. Hindmarsh printed it at his own expense.
"1784. Mr. Hindmarsh, a member of the above Society, printed and published this year the work entitled, Sensus Internus Propheticus, &c."*
* This is confirmed by Mr. Hindmarsh in the "Appendix" mentioned above.
In 1785, finally, was commenced the printing in the original Latin of the large work entitled Apocalypsis Explicata, at the joint expense of Messrs. Peckitt,229 William Spence,221 George Adams, and Robert Hindmarsh.225 In that year Vol. I was printed; in the following year, 1786, Vol. II; in 1788, Vol. III; and in 1790, Vol. IV. Vol. IV contained also the two smaller treatises, De Divino Amore-on the Divine Love, and De Divina Sapientia--on the Divine Wisdom.
In the preface to the second edition of the translation of the Apocalypsis Explicata it is stated that "the original MS. of that work, in the author's handwriting, was procured from Sweden in the latter part of the year 1784, or the beginning of 1785, by a Society which then held its meetings in New Court, Middle Temple, London."
Mr. C. F. Nordenskjöld's statement, however, places it beyond a doubt that it was brought to England by himself, at the close of 1783, and that he brought it with the knowledge and consent of the Secretary of the Academy.
C. F. Nordenskjöld continued to stay in London until 1786. In 1785 he received a letter from his friend Wadström, dated Stockholm, September 25, which is in our possession, and in it we find the following passage, "Young Johansen (see Note 260) is still at my house; he copied from the original MS. the five paragraphs you desired,* which I enclose." From this it would appear that young Johansen was the one man in Stockholm who could read the original Latin, and that he also was the amanuensis who was employed by A. Nordenskjöld in copying those Latin MSS. of Swedenborg, which were sent to England; so that these copies do not rest on the authority of A. Nordenskjöld, as is generally supposed in the New Church, and as was believed by Thomas Dawes, Esq., who, on January 14, 1842, wrote to the Swedenborg Society: "I think the New Church should not, wholly depend upon the fidelity of Mr. Nordenskjöld's copying; for his unchaste conduct during his stay in Manchester was such as no New Churchman could overlook" (see Note 27). Still this censure of A. Nordenskjöld does not at all apply to his brother C. F. Nordenskjöld, who, as is shown in Note 20, was a thoroughly honourable and excellent New Churchman.
* These "five paragraphs" are no doubt the "five memorable relations" of which an English translation was printed in the "New Jerusalem Magazine" for 1790, pp. 43-46, and 76-84. Dr. Im. Tafel printed them in the original Latin in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, appendix I, pp. 124 to 135.
When C. F. Nordenskjöld returned to Sweden in 1786, he left the MSS. which he had brought to England in the care of Dr. Spence,221 at whose house he resided during the latter part of his stay in London. This fact Nordenskjöld, as it seems, communicated to Dr. Im. Tafel; for in a letter which the latter addressed to him in 1823, and which is in our possession, he asks Nordenskjöld, "What has become of those MSS. which you left in the keeping of Mr. William Spence?
I hope the Society took good care of them."
These MSS. consisted of the original MS. of the Apocalypsis Explicata, 3 vols., 4to, and of the following works, which had been copied in Sweden under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld: 1. Clavis Hieroglyphica, 2. Sensus Propheticus, &c., 3. Swedenborg's Index to the Apocalypsis Revelata, 4. The treatises on Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, printed in Vol. IV of the Apocalypsis Explicata, 5. The five Memorable Relations, which Wadström sent to London in 1785, 6. A copy of one of the volumes of Swedenborg's Memorabilia, viz., "Vol. IV of no. 7" in Document 304, which begins with no. 973 and extends to no. 3427, to which was also added a list of the heads of nos. 149 to 592, contained in "Vol. II of no. 7,"* and 7. Swedenborg's Index to the Arcana Coelestia.
* M. Chastanier took a private copy of this part of Swedenborg's Memorabilia, viz., from no. 973 to no, 3487, which copy is now in the possession of the Swedenborg Society in London, and he states there that this constitutes the, "second volume of his friend Spence's MS. copy from Swedenborg."
Nos. 2 and 7 of these MS. copies seem afterwards to have passed into the hands of Mr. J. A. Tulk; for they were published at his expense in 1813 and 1815.
The subsequent history of the MS. of the Apocalypsis Explicata is related in "The New Church Quarterly" for 1847, Vol. I, pp. 66 and 67, in the following manner: "The expense of publishing the Apocalypsis Explicata was ultimately defrayed wholly by Mr. Peckitt, for although when it was first resolved to put it to press he was associated with Dr. William Spence, Mr. Robert Hindmarsh, and Mr. George Adams, in the risk, to whom, as joint-editor, M. Chastanier was afterwards added; he was subsequently, as we have been informed by Mr. Hindmarsh himself, so well pleased with the work, that being in good circumstances he relieved his friends from their share of the responsibility, and took the whole expense upon himself. Mr. Peckitt having done this, the entire impression of 250 copies was handed over to him, and the original manuscript also.
"Mr. Peckitt, as we have been assured by his excellent son, regarded this MS. as the property of the Academy of Sciences, and himself, as holding it for that body, simply in the character of a trustee. The French Revolution, however, had now burst forth in all its fury, rendering all intercourse between the different nations of Europe a matter of imminent risk; its return, therefore, was necessarily postponed, and no opportunity for its transmission presenting itself in his life-time, Mr. Peckitt left it in his will to two of his friends, Messrs. Sibly272 and Darwin, and placed in one of the volumes a loose memorandum to the effect that he held them for the Academy. This memorandum was subsequently lost, and the MS. having been delivered to the legatees, as directed in the will, was, we doubt not, mistakenly regarded by them as a pure gift, they not knowing otherwise than that it was held by Mr. Peckitt in full and absolute right.
"That this is a correct view of the case we feel assured on several grounds. For, first, neither Mr. Sibly272 nor Mr. Darwin were acquainted with the heavenly doctrines until some time after the MSS. were brought over. Mr. Sibly certainly did not become acquainted with them until the year 1787, and Mr. Darwin's reception was, we understand, still later, in 1794. Secondly, it is our opinion, that neither they, nor even the widow of Mr. Peckitt, were ever informed of the history of the MSS., and we say this with the more confidence, because we know as a fact, that, subsequently to the delivering of the original of the Apocalypsis Explicata to Messrs. Sibly and Darwin, it was purchased from them by Mrs. Peckitt, for--as we are informedBthe sum of fifty pounds. Need we say that is utterly improbable that she would have purchased, or they have sold the MS., for such a sum, had either party been aware that it was simply held upon trust? To suppose this, would imply extreme folly on the part of Mrs. Peckitt, and gross dishonesty on that of two of the worthiest of men. Mr. Sibly not only ministered gratuitously to his society, but frequently contributed pecuniary aid toward its support; and Mr. Darwin was, we understand, an example of integrity such as has not often been presented to the world; for when he found his affairs deranged by the misconduct of one in whom he confided, he had scarcely allowed himself the common necessaries of life lest he should injure his creditors;--such men could not commit an act of gross dishonesty.
"The MS. of the Apocalypsis Explicata having thus passed again into the hands of the Peckitt family, came, after the death of his mother, into the possession of Mr. Henry Peckitt, and was handed over by him to the London Printing Society, in or about the year 1828. Its receipt is acknowledged in their report, published in June, 1829."
C.
DOCUMENTARY ACCOUNT OF THE SECOND INSTALMENT OF THE SWEDENBORG MSS. BROUGHT TO ENGLAND IN 1788.
In a biographical notice of Wadström by Mr. J. A. Tulk (see Note 36), we read: "This gentleman came from Stockholm to London prior to the year 1790, and brought with him many of the MSS. of Emanuel Swedenborg, such as the 'Diary' and others. He was a man zealous in the propagation of the New Doctrines, and had been one of the members of the Exegetical Society established in Stockholm for the same purpose. In the year 1790, he had a meeting of the friends of the New Church weekly at his lodgings near Tottenham Court Road, and was Chief editor of the 'New Jerusalem Magazine.'"
The original MSS. which he brought with him, as will appear in the sequel, were nos. 2, 3, 6, and 7 of the missing MSS., specified in subdivision A of the present document.
Besides, he brought with him copies of the following MSS., viz. 1. Canones Nov Ecclesi. 2. De Domino et de Athanasii Symbolo, 3. Doctrina de Charitate, 4. De Ultimo Judicio et Mundo Spirituali, 5. Colloquia cum Angelis, 6. Invitatio ad Novam Ecclesiam, 7. Coronis seu Appendix ad Veram Christianam Religionem.
Mr. Wadström arrived in London with these MSS. in 1788, as appears from the following footnote on p. 62 of the "New Church Quarterly," Vol. I: "From the preface to Wadström's Essay on Colonization, which was published at London in 1794, we learn that he was in Sweden in 1787,....and in London in 1788, where he was baptized into the New Church, at Eastcheap, on Christmas day."
We further reed on p. 61, that "Wadström was in London as late as April 1789, where he was present at a Conference, then held in Great Eastcheap." From the "Biografiskt Lexicon," Vol. XIX, p. 143, we learn that Wadström continued in England until 1795, when he went to France.
As to the mode in which Wadström on his arrival in London disposed of these MSS., "The New Church Quarterly," Vol. I, p. 62, gives us the following information, "Whilst in town, they (Wadström and Nordenskjöld) appear to have placed the manuscripts confided to them, in the hands of M. Chastanier,222 a French surgeon, who resided in London for upwards of forty years, and who was distinguished for his zeal in the propagation of the doctrines of the New Church. With a view of obtaining the means for their publication, M. Chastanier issued in 1790 [1785], prospectus pour Imprimer par Souscription, les uvres Posthumes de l'Honorable et Savant Emanuel de Swedenborg." On p. 64 we read further, "In 1790, it would seem that another prospectus was issued, besides the one in French previously mentioned; this prospectus comprised eight pages, octave; and it contained, amongst other things, 'Proposals for printing, by subscription, Emanuel Swedenborg's 'Spiritual Diary,' [this was the title by which Swedenborg's Memorabilia, nos. 2 and 3 in Documents 307 and 308, A, became subsequently known in the New Church,] &c. The members of the New Church, however, had by this time begun to establish themselves, in London and elsewhere, as a separate body of Christians, and found, perhaps, a more useful employment for their moderate pecuniary means, in supporting the public worship of the Lord, than in sustaining the expenses of such a publication as the 'Diary' of Swedenborg."
Of the subsequent history of the Swedenborg MSS., which were left in the hands of M. Chastanier by Mr. Wadström, me find in the "New Church Quarterly" (Vol. I, p. 67 et seq.) the following account: "After Chastanier's unsuccessful attempt in 1790, to publish the other MSS. by subscription, they remained, we believe, for some years in his hands. He, however, was advancing in life, and diminishing as to pecuniary means.
Like most persons who have fallen into poverty, he applied to his religious friends for aid; but the majority of them were not able to afford this assistance, and as a security for the repayment of certain sums which had been advanced to him, he placed in their hands portions of the MSS. which had been left in his care. How far such an act was justifiable we cannot, perhaps, at this distance of time ascertain. But this much is absolutely certain, Chastanier was in the most extreme poverty, and, residing in a country where he was much more an alien at that period than any native of France would now consider himself, must have been keenly sensible of the helplessness of his position indeed, we have now before us a copy, in his own handwriting, of a letter in which this feeling is expressed, together with a confession of his sole reposing, next to Providence, on the brethren of the New Church. Living thus precariously, and gradually falling into absolute want, he may have felt it a duty, as well as a convenience to himself, to deposit the MSS. in the hands of persons who would feel interested in their preservation. If this was one of his real motives, and we cannot doubt it, the event was such that his own conscience, whatever may be our judgment at this distance of time, could not but acquit him of all blame; for having exhausted alike his own funds and those which he had borrowed, he took a journey to Edinburgh; and there, one bitter night, the poor old man, exposed in the open air to the inclemency of the weather, and now nearly eighty years of age, perished of cold. Thus miserably ended the last earthly days of Benedict Chastanier." For further particulars see Note 222.
"One portion of the MSS., the Diarium Minus, as it has been called by Dr. Tafel [no. 7 among the missing MSS. specified in the beginning of the present article], fell, as a pledge, in this way, into the hinds of the Rev. Joseph Proud, and was, at a subsequent period, presented by him to Mr. D. R. M'Nab.
"Part of the remainder became, for some years, the property of the Rev. M. Sibly,272 who, as we were informed, redeemed them from another gentleman, by paying him the money advanced to Chastanier, when they were placed in his hands as security for its repayment.
These MSS. consisted chiefly of the greater part of the Diarium Majus;* with copies of the Canones, De Domino, &c., Doctrina de Charitate, Invitatio ad Novam Ecclesiam, Supplementum in Coronidem ad Veram Christianam Religionem, Colloquia cum Angelis, &c....
* They consisted of no. 2 (no. 3 in Documents 307 and 308, A), and nos. 3 and 6 of the missing MSS., specified in subdivision A of the present document.
"From the year 1828 until after the death of Mr. Sibly, which took place on December 16, 1840, the MSS., so far as known to exist in England, were held as above described,--the Apocalysis Explicata, by the London Printing Society,--the Diarium Majus, &c., by Mr. Sibly, and the Diarium Minus, by Mr. M'Nab.
Messrs. Wadström and Nordenskjöld had both died abroad some thirty years before,--the former it is said in France [see Note 36], and the latter in Africa [see Note 35]. Most of their contemporaries had passed into the world of spirits, and of those who remained on earth, no one appeared to be fully aware of the history of the MSS. Some doubt had indeed been expressed as to the right of their present holders to possess them, by a gentleman who was baptized into the New Church when an infant, at the place of worship in Great Eastcheap on the same day as Mr. Wadström,--C. A. Tulk, Esq. Mr. Tulk had some recollection of their early history, which induced him to believe that they belonged de jure to the Academy of Sciences: and this opinion he stated publicly, we believe, on one occasion at a general meeting of the London Printing Society. Mr. Tulk, however, did not know enough on the subject to satisfy the minds of others; and his objections to the title of the MSS. were in some degree met by the prevailing idea that although they had been originally borrowed by Wadström and Nordenskjöld, yet that a price had been put on them by the academy in the may of penalty, in case of their not being restored within a limited time, and that the time having expired, the penalty had been demanded by the Academy and paid by Wadström's successors. Of course this plea only rendered the right of the Academy doubtful, and by no means proved the justice of the de facto possessors: and so after awhile, it became considered by the Society itself; as me shall see in the sequel."
D.
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE SWEDENBORG MSS. IN ENGLAND.
The history of the missing Swedenborg MSS. entered upon a new phase on the decease of the Rev. M. Sibly in 1840, when the MSS. in his possession were acquired by the Swedenborg Society. The Society's Reports for 1841, 1842, and 1843 contain a minute account of the mode in which these MSS. came into their possession, and they furnish also all the documents by which it can be shown what became of them afterwards. But me shall continue to take our account from the "New Church Quarterly," supplementing this account afterwards by documents drawn from the Society's Reports and from other sources. The "New Church Quarterly" continues on p. 69:
"In the spring of 1841, after the decease of Mr. Sibly, Mr. Bateman, the treasurer of the London Printing Society, who was just as ignorant of the history of the MSS. as other people, conceiving it to be very desirable that all of them should be in the possession of that body, took an opportunity, when visiting Miss Sibly, in the mouth of March, to advert to them, and to suggest the propriety of some arrangement being made in regard to them. To this, Miss Sibly readily assented; but added, that as her father had paid money for them, she considered they ought to be paid for in money. This was so obviously just, that if was immediately agreed to; and when, on Miss Sibly being asked how much she required for them, she answered L10, Mr. Bateman immediately concluded the bargain; saying the amount was so trifling that he would purchase them at once, and, should the Society not be willing to have them at that price, retain them himself. The transfer of this portion of the MSS. was made, on the same day, and Miss Sibly kindly added to them the transcripts made by Messrs. Nordenskjöld [2] and Chastanier, and an index to a part of the Diarium Majus prepared by her revered father.
"At the next meeting of the Printing Society's Committee, in April, Mr. Bateman laid the MSS. on the table, stating what had taken place. The Committee, after deliberating what was best to be done under the circumstances, came to the conclusion to pay the purchase-money amongst themselves, and then present them to the Society. This was done accordingly, and after having their homely covers exchanged by Mackenzie for a handsome and substantial binding, they were safely deposited with the trustees of the Society.
"But the Committee did not rest there. Having now obtained nearly all the Swedenborgian MSS. known to exist in this country--part by the kindness of Mr. Peckitt, and part by this purchase from Miss Sibly--it was determined to ascertain the validity of their title to them, by a direct application to Stockholm, believing it was a duty either to restore or purchase them if they belonged to the Academy; and if the penalty spoken of had been paid as a purchase by Wadström's representatives, it was equally a duty to restore to those representatives either the penalty or the MSS. This subject was brought before the Society at its annual general meeting on the 19th of June, 1841, when the Committee was authorized to procure the necessary information in regard to them. Numerous letters were written accordingly, to different gentlemen, both in this country and on the continent, from whom there was any probability of obtaining information--and also to the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm.
From the answers received, it became evident that the trustees of the Royal Academy of Sciences were the rightful owners of the MSS.; that no penalty had ever been levied on Wadström's heirs for their non-return; and that the Academy did not feel itself justified in selling them, although it had long since abandoned all exception of ever seeing them in its library again.
"A general meeting of the Printing Society was called for the 29th of September, 1842; when evidence being produced in proof of the above facts, and Mr. M'Nab having kindly placed his MS. in the same category with the rest, the Society agreed, without a single dissentient voice, to restore the MSS. to the Academy, and to present at the same time to its library a complete set of the writings of Swedenborg, as published by the Society, both in Latin and English.
Permission was then obtained from the Academy to copy such of these MSS. as were not already in print, and subsequently to obtain copies of others still remaining in its own library. Thus, after a lapse of about sixty years, the MSS. of Swedenborg again became possessed by that body to which they had been originally confided for safe-keeping, and for the honour of the author, by his heirs. The mode of their restoration was such as to give entire satisfaction to all parties concerned; and owing to the liberality of the Academy, in rescinding, in favour of two New Church Institutions in this country, (viz. the London Printing Society and the Swedenborg association,) its resolution not to suffer the Swedenborg MSS. to go out of the walls of its library; it has been the means of rendering all that Swedenborg has left behind him--which is still known to exist in his own country,--as perfectly accessible to us here as if it were our own, and has opened an intercourse of the most agreeable and honourable kind with one of the most ancient and learned bodies in Europe, and with its celebrated Secretary, Baron Berzelius."
E.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SWEDENBORG MSS. RECEIVED BY THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY IN 1841.*
* See report of the Swedenborg Society for 1841, pp. 29 and 30.
"The MSS. obtained from Miss Sibly are nine in number, of which three volumes are in Swedenborg's handwriting:
"The first is a portion of the 'Diary, now bound up in two volumes, or parts, so as to diminish the wear and tear of each volume. The 'Diary' had the mark 'V' on the back of the old parchment binding. It contains 494 pages...The volume commences with p. 3, and no. 3428, and the numbers cease with no. 6096, on p. 488."
By comparing the description of this volume, as given here, with that of Vol. II of Swedenborg's Memorabilia, as contained in subdivision A of the present Document, nos. 1 and 2 of the missing MSS., it becomes very evident that we have here no. 3 of Bjrnstjerna's and Wilcke's catalogues (Documents 307 and 308, A), and Volume V. of no. 7 in the catalogue prepared by Swedenborg's heirs (Document 304, under the head "Theological Works,") and consequently, that me have here the no. 3 of Swedenborg's MSS., which Baron Berzelius declares to have been wanting from the Library of the Academy of Sciences, on October 27, 1841 (see Document 308, B).
"The second is of a thin foolscap size, and is an Index to the subject-matter of that volume of the 'Diary' which we have; not however arranged in any particular order, though under various heads. It has at the end an alphabetical Index to itself." We have here no. 6 of the missing MSS., as appears by a comparison of the above description, with that collected from Documents 304, 307, and 308, A8, under no. 6 in subdivision A of the present Document; by this comparison it is established further that this volume is no. 63, which was reported by Baron Berzelius as missing from the Library of the academy of Sciences, on October 27, 1841.
"The third volume of original MSS., is of a thin small ledger size, containing extracts from, and references to, passages of the Old and New Testaments, arranged under various heads, such as 'Apostoli,' 'Christus,' 'Fides,' 'Redemptio,' &c. This volume is no. 3 among the missing MSS. as appears plainly by a comparison of the above description, with that contained in no. 3 of subdivision A of the present document; and it appears further that it is the no. 49, which was reported as missing by Baron Berzelius on October 27, 1841."
F.
AN INTERROGATORY OF THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY ANSWERED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN STOCKHOLM.*
* See Report of the Swedenborg Society for 1842, p. 16 et seq.
"Stockholm, November 21, 1841.
"Sir,
"In your letter of the 9th September, you requested from the Secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences, in the name of the Committee for Publishing the Writings of the late Mr. Swedenborg, the following particulars and details:
First,-" faithful copy of the will of Swedenborg.
"The late assessor Swedenborg made no will. [See also Document 141, Vol. I, p. 393.] His heirs gave over his works and manuscripts to the care of the Academy, that, to the honour of his memory, they might for ever remain there.
Secondly,-" copy of a Decree, which has been made in a cause pending in Sweden, between the Academy and the heirs of Swedenborg, as to the right to his MSS.; and a note of the subject of the cause, and information as to the date of the Decree, and whether it is final or not.
"The cause of the Decree, of which I hereby send a copy [see subdivision G of present Document], is as follows: A citizen of Stockholm (Mr. Berg), had procured an instrument, signed by all Swedenborg's then living heirs, in which they resigned to him their right to the manuscripts; in consequence of which he claimed them of the Academy. As the Academy refused this request, he tried by a law-suit to prove his right; but upon an examination of the papers on which were founded his pretensions on one side, and the Academy's on the other, of which the contents are to be found in the Decree, his pretensions were condemned. Berg went through all the judicial instances, and at last appealed to the King's decision in the High Court, whose Decree you will find in the copy sent herewith. It is irrevocable.
Thirdly,--That a list of the writings of Swedenborg, enclosed in your letter, be collated with the catalogue in possession of the Academy, and the former corrected by the latter, and that some account be given of where each work is, whether in the Academy, or in any other, and what country, with the name of the persons who obtained them from Sweden, and of those who, it is supposed, now have them; and whether there are copies in the Academy of those originals which may have passed out of its possession.
"I add here a list of Swedenborg's works, which are kept in the library of the Academy, that you may compare it with your own. Several of the manuscripts, noted in the latter, are unfortunately missing, having been lent to two of Swedenborg's friends, Wadström and Nordenskjöld, who never restored them. There are also no receipts or bonds to be found in the archives of the academy. Wadström and Nordenskjöld were neither of them in easy circumstances, and died abroad, more than thirty years ago. This may probably be the reason why the works are lost, and why, since that time, the Academy came to the decision never to allow any of the manuscripts of Swedenborg to be carried out of the Library; and whoever wishes to study or copy them, must submit to do so in the reading-room of the library, under the particular inspection of the librarian.
Fourthly,--A copy of a bond, under which some of them, &c., &c.
"The answer is given in what is stated above.
"As to attempting to recover the works borrowed by Nordenskjöld and Wadström, I look upon it as useless.
"I am, Sir,
"Your most obedient servant,
"JAC. BENZELIUS,
"Secretary to the Academy of Sciences."
G.
ATTEMPTS MADE BY SWEDENBORG'S HEIRS, TO RECOVER HIS MSS. FROM THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
Among the correspondence of Dr. Carl Jesper Benzelius, Bishop of Strengns, which is preserved in the Cathedral-Library of Linköping, the editor of these Documents discovered the two following:
(a) Declaration of Swedenborg's heirs.
"We, the nearest relations of our late uncle, the well-born assessor Emanuel Swedenborg, herewith request and empower the high well-born Baron Gran Ulric Fredrikson Silfverhjelm,* to demand in whatever legal way it may be done, and afterwards to receive, the MSS. and printed books of the above-named Assessor, which the Honourable Eric Samuel Wennberg, bank-commissioner, together with a descriptive catalogue, left for safe-keeping at the Royal Academy of Sciences, but without conveying to it the right of possession Baron Silfverhjelm, however, must not make any such general use of this power of attorney, as can in any way conflict with the instructions he has received, but must proceed in a lawful manner in accordance therewith; in which case we declare ourselves satisfied with everything he may do.
* Baron Gran U. Silfverhjelm, born 1562, was the son of Baron Frederic Silfverhjelm and Theophila Unge, daughter of Dean Unge and Catharine Swedenborg; see Vol. I, p. 91. Table IV, 2.
"Homestead near Skara, June 2, 1788.
"In behalf of my dear brother, Captain Emanuel Swedenborg, and also in behalf of my sisters, and of myself,
[signed]
J. G. SWEDENBORG,*
Major and Knight.
JESPER UNGE. THEOPHILA UNGE.
L. S. L. S.
SARA LUNDSTEDT.** STINA LOUISA UNGE.
L. S. L. S."
* Jesper Gustaf Swedenborg; see Vol. I, p. 92, Table V.
** Daughter of Anders Lundstedt and Margaretha Swedenborg; see Vol. I, p. 92, Table XIV.
(b) Baron Silfverhjelm to Bishop C. J. Benzelius
"Stockholm, July 4, 1788.
"Right Reverend Doctor and Bishop,
"Honoured and dear uncle,
"Since an offer of a considerable amount of money has been received from England for the MSS. left by the late Assessor Swedenborg, all the heirs to his estate who live in West-Gothland, have been pleased to honour me with the trust, of which the enclosed copy of their power of attorney is a proof. I hope to be able to acquit myself of this commission to the advantage of all the heirs, and shall endeavour to prove myself worthy of their confidence. If you would like to join them in this undertaking, you will kindly forward to me a similar power of attorney. 'The King has graciously promised me the office of 'lagman' over Gothland.
"I am, dear uncle,
"Your most obedient servant,
"GRAN FREDERICSON SILVERHJELM."
H.
A ROYAL DECISION AFFIRMING THE RIGHT OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES TO THE MSS. OF SWEDENBORG.*
* See Report of the Swedenborg. Society for 1842, p. 17 et seq.
From the statement of the Secretary of the Academy, in Subdivision F of the present Document, it appears, that Abraham Berg, a citizen of Stockholm, "procured for himself an instrument, by which Swedenborg's heirs resigned to him their right to the MSS. of their kinsman." Berg, as we have seen, tried by a law-suit to substantiate his claim. The following is a translation of the final decision which the King of Sweden passed in this matter:
"His Majesty's Decree in the cause pending between Abraham Berg, Distiller to the Court, on the one part, Plaintiff, and His Majesty's Academy of Sciences, on the other part, Defendant, which has by formal appeal been submitted for His Majesty's revision by His and the Kingdom's Supreme Court of Swea, respecting a demand made by summons issued by the said Plaintiff before the Inferior Court of the City of Stockholm, that a Collection of Manuscripts in the handwriting of Emanuel Swedenborg, deceased,
--together with part of his Correspondence find various other Documents, which, according to a catalogue of the same, were, on the 27th of October, 1772, delivered to the Academy of Sciences by the Bank-Commissary, E. Wennberg, and the Referee, C. Benzelstjerna, on behalf of the heirs of the said Swedenborg, in order, in the manner as was likewise requested, to be preserved in the library of the said Academy, with that care which was expected from the contents of the said Documents, and which the respect due to the deceased and the honour of his family then and at all future time required, might--inasmuch as such delivery for the purpose of safe custody could not be viewed in the light of a transfer, whereby the heirs of Swedenborg resigned their legal right to the Documents in question, in favour of the Academy of Sciences--be accounted for according to the catalogue referred to, on the ground of such delivery by the heirs of Assessor Swedenborg, and be handed over to the Plaintiff as the rightful owner of the same. In which Suit, not only the Inferior City Court, on the 1st of August, 1827, but also the Chief City Court, on the 29th of September following, did, by reasons stated, exempt the Academy of Sciences from the claim thus set up, and the Supreme Court, to which the Plaintiff has appealed against this decision, has, by a Decree of the 15th of February in the present year, given it as its opinion: That inasmuch as Bank Commissary Wennberg and the Referee Benzelstjerna did, after the demise of Assessor Swedenborg, on behalf of his heirs, on the 20th of October, 1772, deliver to the Academy of Sciences the Assessor's Manuscripts and Letters in question, accompanied with a request that the same might be preserved in the library of the Academy with that care which was expected from the contents of the Documents, and which the respect due to the deceased and the honour of his family then and at all future time required; which delivery, whether Wennberg and Benzelstjerna did produce any special order from the rest of Assessor Swedenborg's heirs or not, must the more be presumed to have been done by their consent, as no objection, as far as the Documents show, can be found to have been raised against it during the long period of above fifty years which has since elapsed;
and from the conditions on which the said Documents were thus delivered to the Academy, and there received in conformity with a receipt given for them by the Secretary of the Academy, there seems no other conclusion to be drawn, than that it belongs to the Academy to decide how far the Documents thus entrusted to the Academy ought to be delivered up. The Supreme Court therefore considers it right to confirm the decision which the Inferior Courts have come to, wherein an alteration has humbly been sought, and respecting which litigation has been carried on. Decided by His Majesty's Supreme Court, and given at the Palace of Stockholm, the 10th of September, 1828.
"HIS MAJESTY has been graciously pleased to cause the Documents in this cause to be laid before him, together with the pleas and objections humbly adduced by the parties against each other, and graciously deems it just to confirm the Decree promulgated by Supreme Court; and that the Plaintiff shall compensate the Academy of Sciences the costs of this Decree in the sum of Seven rix-dalers Banco, to which all parties concerned have humbly to conform themselves.
"Under His Majesty's Privy Seal,
(L. S.) ARUDM. BERGENSTRLE.
"Decree between A. Berg, Court Distiller, and His Majesty's Academy of Sciences.
"I attest that the above is correctly copied,
"(Signed) JACOB BERZELIUS
"Secretary to the Royal Academy of Sciences"
I.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES CLAIMS THE SWEDENBORG MSS. FROM THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY.
(a) Letter of the Royal Academy of Sciences to the London printing Society.*
* See Report of the Swedenborg Society for 1843, p. 42
"The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences has been in- formed that your Society is at present in possession of some MSS. belonging to the collection of original handwritings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which the heirs of that illustrious author had deposited in our Academy, that they might be conserved there, as an everlasting monument to his memory. But of those MSS. have, for a considerable time, been abalienated from the original collection, by being lent on trust and confidence to two members of the Academy, personal and intimate friends of Swedenborg in his lifetime;* and the same persons having afterwards taken those papers with them to foreign countries, where they remained to their death, without having restored to the Academy the borrowed MSS.
* The members of the Academy signing this letter labour under a mistake in thinking that Wadström and Nordenskjöld were personally acquainted with Swedenborg. A. Nordenskjöld was born in 1754, and thus was scarcely eighteen years old when Swedenborg died in 1772. Besides, it is known that he became acquainted with Swedenborg's writings in 1773; thus, whole year after Swedenborg"s decease. Wadström was eight years older, having been born in 1746; yet during Swedenborg's life-time after he had graduated at Upsal in 1767, he was scarcely ever in Stockholm or London, and thus it is extremely unlikely that he made his personal acquaintance.
"By these considerations, the Royal Academy feels itself fully assured that your honourable Society, inspired equally by its own sentiment of what is right in general, and particularly by its esteem for the memory of Swedenborg, will make no objection to restore the before-mentioned MSS. to the collection of Swedenborg's originals, after having made of them all the use the Society may desire, by copying or publishing the contents thereof; the Royal Academy being, on its part, bound by double obligation to preserve in their complete integrity, all the MSS. which have been entrusted to it by the heirs of Swedenborg, and to hold them in readiness in its library for all persons who may desire to study or consult the posthumous works of this celebrated philosopher.
"VON BRINKMAN,274
"p. t. President of the Royal Academy of Sciences;
"JAC. BERZELIUS
"Secretary to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
"Stockholm, May 18, 1842."
(b) Baron Berzelius to Mr. W. M. Wilkinson, Secretary of the London Printing Society.*
* See Report of the Swedenborg Society for 1843, p. 43.
"Stockholm, May 19, 1842.
"Dear Sir,
"I have to return my best thanks for your two letters of March 8, and the very accurate explanations they contain regarding the manner by which your Society are for the present in possession of the Swedenborg MSS.; which you are willing to restore to the Swedish Academy, from which they have been alienated, by the unpardonable negligence of two persons, to whom they had been entrusted, under the formal condition and promise to return them after having taken a more particular knowledge of their contents.
"The Swedish Academy has received with great satisfaction the assurance, 'that your Committee regards the restitution of those MSS. to their rightful owner as a duty on their part.' But an insinuation in your Letter no. 1, 'that the Swedenborg originals should be restored to the Royal Academy, if we desire it, and there be no other way of meeting our wishes,' seems to require a particular and very positive answer on our part; and I have therefore been charged to declare in the name of the Academy, 'that it by no means can consider itself as authorized to consent to any modification whatsoever of its right to claim the restitution of those originals, which now have come into foreign hands, by the very improper conduct of Messrs. Wadström and Nordenskjöld.'
"To these gentlemen the MSS. had been delivered only as a temporary loan, with all the trust and confidence which at that time they should naturally inspire, as being themselves members of the Royal Academy. The originals of Swedenborg have been deposited in our archives as public property, not as our own; a quality which has been sanctioned and confirmed by the Royal Decree, whereof you received a copy with my last letter. The strict obligation of the Academy is to preserve them in full integrity, and to make them accessible to all such persons as may be anxious to consult the originals, or even the hand-writing of the author.
"The Academy has itself no right or permission to dispose of them otherwise, nor to exchange the originals for the most carefully made copies; still less to part with them for whatsoever indemnity could be proposed.
"But far from any jealousy to withhold these MSS. from the friends of Swedenborg, or from the public at large, we are entirely of your opinion, that the intention of Swedenborg and his executors can never have been to condemn them to oblivion, by depositing them in the custody of the Royal Academy. And as your Committee has shewn the greatest delicacy, by not permitting itself to take copies, even of those MSS. which now are in your bends, without the permission of the owner, I am very glad to find myself authorized to transfer to your Committee the full and unlimited permission to copy and print all those MSS.; the Academy wishing by no means to prevent the publication of what is estimated as a treasure of genius and edification by so many respectable admirers of Swedenborg's writings.
"But as the members of your Committee may possibly not be permanent, you will certainly make no objection to the earnest wish of the Royal Academy to receive by your intervention as speedily as possible, an authentic act, by which the Society binds itself to restore to us the original MSS. after a certain time, to be fixed by your own convenience, as necessary for malting the copies.
"Concerning the L5 1s. you have paid for the binding of our MSS. it will not be as you say, 'a combat of friendship between us,' but the Academy regards as a strict duty of gratitude to reimburse your expenses, as soon as our property has been restored; herself being no less interested than your Committee, in the preservation of these precious MSS. from injury and decay.
"As for the rest, you are perfectly in the right in supposing, 'that no suggestion will be entertained by the Royal Academy, short of the return of the original MSS." and if the Committee will have the goodness to enrich our Library with a copy of its new editions of Swedenborg's theological works, we shall thankfully receive them as a friendly present, but without the least pretension to regard this as compensation for the permission given by the Academy to make what use you find most convenient of the contents of the Swedenborg MSS.
"As you have informed us by a very clear and historical deduction how the oft-mentioned MSS., after various successions, have at last--'most honourably indeed'--come into your hands, I will only add a brief account of their first alienation from the Academy. It is already about sixty years since the MSS. were lent to Messrs. Wadström and Nordenskjöld, only on the condition to restore them to the Secretary of the Academy. No penalty has ever been imposed or received from the borrowers or their successors, so there can in no ways be a question of returning such penalty, neither on our side nor on your own, as you seem to suppose at least as a possibility.
"The borrowers having lived a long time in foreign countries, the reclamations from the Academy may probably never have reached them, at least they have never been answered.
"Nordenskjöld offered to bind all the MSS. at his own expense, which the Academy gratefully accepted; but we have no proof in hand that all the MSS. he received to bind have been completely returned. It is probable, in general, that in those times, about 1780, the value of Swedenborg's posthumous works in manuscript may have been less known and estimated than in our days; and that therefore in delivering over these MSS. to members of the Academy, all the precautions and formalities may not have been observed which we have since found necessary to establish relative to our library, archives, and collections of every description.
"In reply to some other questions contained in your letter I have only to observe, that the Catalogue communicated to the Committee was drawn up by Mr. Wilcke,270 then Secretary of the Academy, [Document 308, A], and contains an inventory of all the objects then to be found in his custody, together with some notices of what had already been lost. The collection of the Swedenborg MSS. had already been delivered to his predecessor, Mr. Wargentin,269 by whom authentic receipt and quittance were given to the heirs of Swedenborg.
"The catalogue quoted in the Regal Decree [Subdivision H, of the present Document], is the same which the heirs of Swedenborg call 'the original catalogue,' and of which your Committee has communicated to us an English translation.
"The two MSS., 'Collections d'Expressions Bibliques' and 'Index des Expressions Bibliques,'* and in general all those whose titles are in French in the Catalogue sent by your Committee, are in our catalogue noted by Swedish titles, wherefore their translation has been found convenient; but the MSS. themselves belong to those which were lent to Mr. Nordenskjöld, and which have not been restored.
* The catalogue sent by the Committee of the Swedenborg Society to the Royal Academy, seems to have been that which Chastanier appended to his French edition of the "Intercourse between the Soul and the Body," published in 1785.
"The MS. of the Arcana Coelestia, chap. i to xix, is only a rough draught, of which a fair copy had not been delivered.
"Dear Sir,
"Your most obedient Servant,
"JAC. BERZELIUS.
"To Mr. Wm. M. Wilkinson,
"Secretary of the London Printing Society."
J.
REPORT OF A SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY, HELD ON SEPTEMBER 29, 1842.*
* See Report of the Swedenborg Society for 1843, p. 5.
The chairman, Dr. Spurgin, briefly explained the cause of the Meeting, and directed the summons of the Secretary (which had been duly circulated among both town and country subscribers), and the copy of letters from the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm and Baron Berzelius [Subdivision I, a and b] to be read by the Secretary. The following Resolutions were then unanimously passed by the Meeting.
"I. That this Society is satisfied with the statement of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, that no penalty was ever imposed upon, or received from, the borrowers of the MSS. of Swedenborg, or their successors.
"II. That the original MS. of the Apocalypsis Explicata, and all the other original MSS. of Swedenborg now in the possession of the Society, be restored to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm.
"III. That the restitution of the MSS. shall be thus: The Apocalypsis Explicata shall be transmitted to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, through Mr. Tottie, the Swedish consul, in such manner as the Committee shall approve, within a month from this time: and that a letter be forthwith sent, informing the Royal Academy of the intended mode of transmission. That as the Academy kindly permits a copy of the unpublished MSS. to be taken before they are returned to Stockholm, and as Dr. J. F. I. Tafel, Librarian to the University of Tübingen, has undertaken to make a copy of them, the unpublished MSS. be sent, as soon as the Committee can arrange it, to Dr. J. F. I. Tafel; upon his engaging to return them within a fixed period, to be approved by the Committee, to Messrs. H. Bateman, L. S. Coxe, and J. J. G. Wilkinson, who shall then immediately transmit them to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm.
"IV. That Dr. Tafel be requested, while making his own copy, to make a duplicate copy of those MSS. for the Society, by the aid of a copying machine, to be proved by the Committee, or by any other economical mode, which may be arranged between him and the Committee.*
* In the Report for 1843, p. 16, we find the following statement by the Committee to the Swedenborg Society at its annual meeting: "Dr. Tafel will find it much more convenient to himself, and more economical, to present the Society with a printed, than with a written, copy of the Diarium Majus; and therefore we waived the fulfilment by the Doctor of that part of your Resolution which requested him to furnish an autograph copy."
"V. That the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm be presented with a complete set of the Writings of Swedenborg, Latin and English, as published by this Society,
"W. M. WILKINSON,
"Secretary"
K.
ACTION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF STOCKHOLM, ON RECEIVING A COPY OF THE FOREGOING REPORT.*
* See Report of the Swedenborg Society for 1843, p. 14.
"To the Society for Printing and Publishing the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, in London.
"The Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm has received by its Secretary, communications of two letters addressed to him by the Secretary of your Society, Mr. W. M. Wilkinson; the first of the 7th, the other of the 19th of October last.
"By these letters the Royal Academy has received notice of the Resolutions carried unanimously by the Members of your Society, in answer to our letter of the 19th of May.
"The Royal Academy feels itself happy to declare, by the present, its thankful acknowledgment of the noble sentiments which have inspired your resolutions, whose execution will, in every respect, afford the surest homage to the memory of Emanuel Swedenborg.
"In consequence of your Resolution, the Academy has already received a large case containing only the Swedenborg manuscript of Apocalypsis Explicata, in three volumes, carefully packed up, but also sixty-five volumes of the same author's works, both in Latin and English, as a very valuable present, for which the Royal Academy considers it a duty to return the most sincere and grateful acknowledgments;
assuring, in the your honourable Society, of the friendly meantime, readiness of the Royal Academy to assist you, by all the means in our possession, capable of promoting the interests of your Society, and to contribute to the execution of your noble undertaking.
"VON BRINKMAN,274
"President of the Academy.
"JACOB BERZELIUS,
"Secretary.
"Stockholm, November 13, 1842."
L.
DISCOVERY OF ADDITIONAL MSS.
The next Swedenborg MSS., the recovery of which we have to record, are nos. 1, 91 and 10 of the missing MSS. specified in subdivision A of the present document.
The first that turned up was no. 1, concerning which we read in a letter of Dr. A. Kahl, published in the Report of the Swedenborg Society for 1843 (p. 27), as told at Skara by a reader (who, however, was but little acquainted with Swedenborg's system), that a, part of Swedenborg's Diary is preserved in the Library at Upsal. Since then I have written to of the professors at that place on the subject, and also to friend Tafel, and I now find that the Upsal portion of the Diary completes the portion which has hitherto been preserved in London, and which has lately been sent to Dr. Tafel for publication. I am in hopes, therefore, that the Upsal Diary may also be lent to our friend, in order that it, too, may be quickly put to press." Dr. Kahl's wishes were soon realized; for as early as August 3, 1843, Dr. Im. Tafel received from the Senate of the Upsal University the volume in question For further particulars respecting this volume, see Document 310, Codex 2.
This volume continued in the possession of the Upsal University until 1870, when, by the exertions of the editor of these Documents, it was restored to the Academy of Sciences. About the same time notice was received in Stockholm of two other manuscript volumes which were in the Library at Upsal, and which it was surmised had likewise been written by Swedenborg. At the request of Mr. J. A. Ahlstrand, librarian of the Academy of Sciences, the editor made a close analysis of the original catalogue prepared by Swedenborg's heirs (Document 304) and the Official Catalogue (Document 308, A), and soon inferred that these volumes must be nos. 9 and 10 in the list of missing MSS. (p. 805). A copy of this analysis with a description of the volumes as contained in Document 304, was at once forwarded by the academy of Sciences to Upsal, when it was found that this description completely tallied with the volumes themselves. They were restored to the Academy of Sciences before the editor left Stockholm in 1870, and upon a, closer examination they were found to be part of Swedenborg's Indexes to the Arcana Coelestia concerning which Mr. Wilcke stated at the close of the Official Catalogue that they were likewise borrowed by Nordenskjöld, inspector of mines." These MSS. were afterwards entered in the Official Catalogue of the Swedenborg Collection (Document 308, A), as codices 112 and 113.
Another missing MS. which the editor was instrumental in bringing to light is no. 5, which is "no. 52" in the Official Catalogue (Document 308, A), and there described as "Swedenborg's letters to Dr. Beyer," and of which it is stated that it was "borrowed by Wadström." Soon after the editor's first visit to Sweden in 1868, he learned from an antiquarian bookseller that about a year ago these letters had been offered to him for sale, the person who owned them [Frus,275* Councillor of State (Stats-Rd)] having departed this life.
Upon further inquiry it was found that these letters had been distributed among his heirs, and that a large number of them had been sold. By the kindness of one of the heirs, Mr. Thure A. af Billbergh, the editor was shown several of these letters, and in 1869 he succeeded in seeing the original volume in which they had been bound. At the first glance he saw that this was one of the volumes of the Swedenborg MSS. bound for the Academy of Sciences by A. Nordenskjöld, which was proved by the fact of a label marked "no. 5a" being still on the back of the volume. On the strength of these indications the volume in question was reclaimed from the heirs of Minister Frus by the Academy of Sciences, and through the exertions of Mr. T. A. af Billbergh, nearly the whole of the letters that had been sold were delivered again to the Academy. Only three of these letters have not found their way back to the academy, viz. the originals of Documents 223, 224, and 245, G.; the second of these, viz. the original of Document 224 was purchased by the authorities of the British Museum, by whom it is carefully preserved.
* On p. 386 we expressed a supposition that these letters had been in the possession of G. F. Billbergh, Secretary of the Society "Pro Fide et Charitate," but we have since found the following statement made by the Secretary of the Swedenborg Society, Mr. W. M. Wilkinson, in the Society's Report for 1853, where he gives a description of a journey he made in Sweden, in 1852: "At Gottenburg the Secretary called on the Statsrd Frus, the Governor of that district, who is a twin brother of the Statsrd Frus, one of the King's Ministers at Stockholm .... After some interesting conversation on the subject of the New Church and its prospects, he desired the Secretary to call on his brother at Stockholm to see his books and some MS. letters of Swedenborg, which had come to him as a descendant of Dr. Beyer, the friend of Swedenborg" (p. 14). In a subsequent part of his report (p. 15) the Secretary continues:
"Here (at Stockholm) the Secretary met the son of the Minister Frus,275 who brought a list of all of Swedenborg's works in his father's possession, and also of twenty original letters from Swedenborg to Dr. Beyer and to Augustus Ahlstrmer between 1765 and 1771, and made an appointment to call on his father, by whom he was kindly received, and all the books and MS. letters were shown to him. On his application on behalf of the Society, the Minister placed the letters in the hands of Mr. Swedbom, [librarian of the Academy,] to have two copies made--one for the Society, and one to be placed in the archives of the Academy of Sciences. The copy for the Society has since been received, and it proves that these letters have been already translated and published, though not with perfect accuracy."
M.
SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF THE MISSING SWEDENBORG MSS.
If now we recapitulate the history of the eleven Swedenborg MSS. which were missing from the Academy of Sciences in 1841, and of which we gave a description in Subdivision A of the present document, we find that the following nine MSS. have since been restored to the Academy, viz. nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10; so that only nos. 4 and 11 require still to be accounted for.
No. 4 appears in the Official Catalogue of the Academy as "no. 50," and is there described as "an Index to the Concordia Book," to which Bjornstjerna (Document 307) makes this important addition, "with several interesting matters Swedenborg wrote just before his death." These "interesting matters" were copied under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld (by whom the volume was borrowed from the Academy), and conveyed to England by Wadström in 1788. This copy, through Chastanier, reached the hands of the Rev. M. Sibly, and after his death in 1840, was, with other copies of MSS., acquired by the Swedenborg Society. At the end of this copy it is distinctly stated by the copyist that it was copied by him from nos. 48 and 50 of the Swedenborg MSS. For further information respecting the contents of this MS., see Document 310, Codex 50.
No. 11 is Volume II of Swedenborg's Index to the earlier volumes of the Arcana Coelestia. The contents of nos. 9, 10, 11, were likewise copied under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld, and conveyed by his brother, C. F. Nordenskjöld, to England in 1783.
This MS. was published in London in 1815, as a quarto Volume, at the expense of J. A. Tulk, Esq.
The Swedenborg MSS. which were missing from the Academy of Sciences in 1841, are thus all satisfactorily accounted for. Nine of these MSS. have been restored to the Academy, and of the two that are still missing copies had been taken, which have since been published.
The fate of Swedenborg's correspondence which was likewise entrusted by his heirs to the academy of Sciences, will be discussed in Document 312.
DOCUMENT 310.
ANALYSIS OF THE SWEDENBORG MSS. IN THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN STOCKHOLM.
The MSS. are here given in the order and with the titles in which they appear in the Official Catalogue of the Academy, Document 308, A. The numbers passed over refer to Swedenborg's printed works, which are discussed in Document 313.
"Codex l.BSensus Propheticus."
This MS, is thus described in the original catalogue of 1772: "Theological, no. 5. Some sheets in royal folio, bound in Turkish paper, and paged from p. 332 to p. 370 inclusive, which contain a short exposition of all the Prophets, and the Psalms of David." This volume was subsequently bound at the expense of A, Nordenskjöld.
A copy was taken of this MS. in 1782, under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld, and conveyed to England in 1783 by his brother, C. F. Nordenskjöld (see p. 806), where it was printed in 1784 by Robert Hindmarsh as a quarto volume under the following title, Summaria Expositio Sensus Interni Librorum Propheticorum Verbi Veteris Testamenti, necnon et Psalmorum Davidis, London, 1784.
In 1859 the original volume was borrowed from the Academy of Sciences by Dr. Im. Tafel for the purpose of printing a new edition from the original MS. This edition appeared in octavo under the following title, Summaria Expositio Sensus Interni Librorum Propheticorum ac Psalmorum Veteris Testamenti; quibus adjecta sunt aliqua de Historicis Verbi, Tbingren, 1860.
After the death of Dr. Im. Tafel in 1863, the above MS., with a number of others, was conveyed to England where it was placed in the safe custody of the Swedenborg Society. There these MSS. remained until 1869, when the editor of these Documents, after his first visit to Sweden in 1868, returned to London for the purpose of finishing there his critical examination of the Swedenborg MSS.
It was then found that no. 1. had disappeared from the collection. The remaining MSS. were at once returned to Stockholm in 1869; but the above MS. remained undiscovered till 1874, when the editor fortunately found it in one of the book-cases of the Swedenborg has been returned to the Academy of Sciences, to whom it belongs. Respecting the place which this MS. occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 109.
"Codices 2 and 3.-Memorabilia."
Concerning these MSS. we read in the Original Catalogue of 1772 as follows: "no. 7. Vo1s. IV and V seem to contain in numbered paragraphs detached materials and memorabilia for the author's theological works; the numbers are so arranged, that the beginning is wanting, yet on the last page of Vol. II they begin with no. 206, [149] and then run backwards to no. 972, which is at about the middle of the volume. The continuation follows in the middle of Vol. IV, commencing with no. 973, and proceeds to the end as far as no. 1789; with no. 1790 the volume is afterwards commenced at the beginning, and it runs on to no. 3427 in the middle of the volume. This same collection from no. 3428 to no. 6093 is afterwards continued in Vol. V."
It appears from this statement that nos. 149 to 1789 of these "Memorabilia" were originally contained in "Vol. II," and nos. 1790 to 3427 in "Vol. IV" of the "THEOLOGICAL WORKS, no. 7," in the Original Catalogue of 1772 (Document 304). These two portions, that is, "Vol. IV," and as much of "Vol. II" as contained the beginning of the "Memorabilia," were afterwards bound into one volume by A. Nordenskjöld, and on the back of that volume was inscribed, "MEMORABILIA, Tom. I. II. 149-3427;" and in this form it constitutes "Codex 2" of the Official Catalogue which we are now considering.
Of the contents of the original "Vol. IV," viz. of the "Memorabilia" from nos. 973 to 3427, A. Nordenskjöld had a transcript made which his brother C. P. Nordenskjöld took to England in 1783, and which in 1786 he left in charge of Dr. William Spence (see p. 807); and of this transcript M. Chastanier took a copy, which Miss Sibly presented to the Swedenborg Society in 1841, after the death of her father. The original volume, however, as re-bound by A. Nordenskjöld, remained in Sweden, though it was not returned to the Academy of Sciences until 1870. In 1843 Dr. A. Kahl (see p. 831) ascertained that it had found its way into the library of the University at Upsal, whence it was placed at the disposal of Dr. Im. Tafel in the same year, for the purpose of having it printed.
In its printed form it Society. Since then it bears the title, Emanuelis Swedenborgii Diarium Spirituale," Part I, Vols. 1 and 2, Tübingen, 1844 and 1845. In 1870, through the exertions of the editor of these Documents, the original MS. volume was restored to the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
"Codex 3," i. e. the original MS. volume containing Swedenborg's "Memorabilia" from nos. 3428 to 6096, was conveyed to England by Mr. Wadström in 1788; and after becoming the subject of a highly curious history, the particulars of which are related in Document 309 (pp. 310 to 317), it was finally restored to the Academy of Sciences about 1848 in two handsome volumes bound in morocco. This binding was done at the expense of the Swedenborg Society of London. The following description of the original volume, as it came into the hands of the Swedenborg Society, is contained in their Report for 1841, p. 30: "The 'Diary' had the mark 'V' on the back of the old parchment binding. It contains 494 pages, (besides 3 leaves at the end, containing 82 numbers, through which the pen is run.) A fly leaf, counted as pages 1 and 2, contains some detached Memoranda. Nearly all the paragraphs are numbered. The volume commences with page 3, and no. 3428, and the numbers cease with no. 6096, on page 488. There are frequently dates at the end of a number; the first date is October 2, 1748, and occurs at no. 3440; and the latest is January 22, 1762 at the end of no. 6019. This work has a particular value and interest, being the journal of Swedenborg's daily thoughts on all the most interesting doctrines, and of his communications with various eminent sects and individuals in the spiritual world. The numbers are not arranged or classified, nor are they expressed at great length; on the contrary, they seem to have been intended as his faithful repository of truth and usefulness, from which he might extract the materials for those noble and conclusive doctrines, so well arranged and developed at length in his published works. They, therefore, have a kind of veracity impressed on them that is truly attractive."
Before this MS. volume was returned to the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, it was with its consent sent by the Swedenborg Society of London to Dr. Im. Tafel in Tübingen for publication. It was printed by him in 1843 and 1844 under the title, Eman. Swedenborgii Diarium Spirituale, Parts II and III.
The morocco binding of the two volumes into which Codex 2 of "Memorabilia" was divided, was titled as follows: E. Swedenborgii Diarium MS. On its return to Sweden this MS. therefore bore the title of "Diarium," and not of "Memorabilia," wherefore its identity with one of the missing volumes of the "Memorabilia" was not at first recognized.
To this circumstance is due the mistake, into which several who have since examined the Swedenborg MSS., fell in supposing that "Codices 2 and 3," i. e. the two volumes of the "Memorabilia," which had been "borrowed by Wadström, were still missing; although at least one of these codices was then in the library under a different name.
Respecting the place which these two codices occupy among the writings of Swedenborg, see Document 313, nos. 93, 96, and 98.
"Codex 4.--Index Biblicus Veteris Testamentii."
This is one of the "five posthumous codices," which Dr Im. Tafel, as he informs us,* combined into one general "Index Biblicus," the publication of which he commenced in 1859. The other codices are nos. 5, 39, 40, and 41:
*See preface to Vol. I of "Emanuelis Swedenborgii Index Biblicus," Tübingen, 1859.
Codices 40 and 41 contain an Index, or rather a Concordance, of the historical books of the Old Testament, where the passages of Scripture are given without an explanation of their spiritual sense. For further particulars respecting this Index, see Document 313, no. 83.
Codex 4, which is now under consideration, contains an Index to the prophetical writings, the Psalms, the Book of Job, the Apocalypse, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, with a partial explanation of the spiritual sense of the quotations from the Prophets. For further particulars respecting this Index, see Document 313, no. 91.
Codex 5 is a Concordance of Bible passages from the New Testament, without any explanation of their spiritual sense. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 92.
Codex 39 contains the Proper Names which occur in the whole of the Sacred Scripture; but only those which are quoted from the prophets are explained as to their spiritual meaning. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 90.
Of the general "Index Biblicus" composed of these five codices, to which was added their spiritual signification as given in the remaining theological works of Swedenborg, Dr. Im. Tafel published three volumes, as far as the beginning of letter D. After his death in 1863, Dr. A. Kahl was requested by the Swedenborg Society of London to see through the press the remaining portion of Codex 4, which was published in 1868 as the fourth and concluding volume of the work.
The title under which it was published is, Emanuelis Swedenborgii Index Biblicus, sive Thesaurus Bibliorum emblematicus et allegoricus."
It is a matter of regret that Dr. Kahl was not requested to follow Dr. Im. Tafel's example, and work up into one Swedenborg's five Biblical Indexes; for although they do not all furnish the spiritual meaning, they, nevertheless, contain Swedenborg's own translation of the Sacred Scriptures, or at least that version of the Scripture which was approved and adopted by him. As it is, all these Indexes, with the exception of Codex 4, have been published only so far as letter D. See also Document 313, no. 58.
As regards Codex 4, this consisted originally of two parts, as stated in Document 307, viz. of "Vol. I" and half of "Vol. II" of "Theological Writings, no. 7" in Document 304. The other half of "vol. II," as we have seen, contained the beginning of Swedenborg's "Memorabilia," from no. 149 to no. 972. The first half of "vol. II," A. Nordenskjöld had bound together with "Vol. I," so as to form Codex 4; and the second half with "Vol. IV," so as to form Codex 2.
"Codex 5.--Index Biblicus Novi Testamenti."
"Codex 6.--Index Biblicus of Isaiah and Genesis." See Codex 4.
1. This MS was originally "Theological Writings, no. 8," in Document 304. It is bound in parchment, about 300 pages, the contents of which are nearly all crossed out. The original contents are Biblical Index of Isaiah and a part of Jeremiah, and likewise of the first twelve or fifteen chapters of Genesis. By instituting a comparison between this Index and that contained in Codex 4, it was found that the portions illustrating. Isaiah and Jeremiah were transferred from this Index to Codex 4; and for this reason the contents of this volume were probably crossed out, as far as Isaiah and Jeremiah are concerned. The portions of Genesis, however, still remain intact. In respect to the particular place which this Index occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 86.
2. Afterwards Swedenborg seems to have made use of this volume for jotting down items concerning his household arrangements, and also for entering into it rough draughts of business letters (See Document 139, Vol. I, pp. 383 to 386.)
3. On p. 1 of this Codex is made this important statement which has not been crossed out: "1747, August 7 old style.
A change of state took place in me into the celestial kingdom, in an image." This statement is photo-lithographed on p. 1164 of Vol. X of Swedenborg's Photo-Lithographed MSS., together with some doctrinal statements written on the cover of the codex.
"Codex 7.-An Index of Memorabilia."
Bjrnstjerna in Document 307 described it as "An Index to the printed Apocalypsis Revelata." This Codex figures in Document 304, i. e. in the Original Catalogue prepared by Swedenborg's heirs, as "Theological Writings, no. 9," and there also it is stated that "it is probably an Index to the printed Apocalypsis Revelata."
1. This volume seems to have been originally used by Swedenborg for compiling an Index to the Apocalypsis Revelata. The materials collected here he afterwards digested into a better form in Codex 103. Of this Codex a copy was taken in 1782 under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld (see p. 804), which was taken to England in 1783 by his brother C. F. Nordenskjöld This copy seems to have passed subsequently into the hands of J. A. Tulk, Esq., at whose expense it wets published in London in 1813, under the title, "Index rerum in Apocalypsi Revelata," 4to.
2. This volume was afterwards used by Swedenborg for an Index to a work on "Conjugial Love," which has been lost, but which seems to have consisted of upwards of 2000 paragraphs. This Index, in which the contents of that work are given as far as no. 83, is printed in Vol. VIII of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., Section V, pp. 21 to 24. The codex is so arranged that the Index to the Apocalypsis Revelata covers the right hand page on opening, and the Index to the "Conjugial Love" the left hand page.
Another Index to the work on "Conjugial Love," which takes in the whole of the 2000 paragraphs, is contained in Codex 46. The contents of this MS. volume also have been photo-lithographed in Volume VIII, Section V, pp. 1 to 20.
Respecting the contents of these two Indexes, see Document 313, no. 133.
3. Toward the close of the volume, on three pages, are written Colloquia cum Angelis. These colloguia were copied, no doubt under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld, and conveyed to England in 1788 by Mr. Waldstrm. This copy came into the possession of the Swedenborg Society in 1841, after the death of the Rev. M. Sibly, to whom it had belonged. It was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1846, in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1, pp. 134 to 137. A photolithographic copy of these colloquia is contained in Vol. VIII of the photo-lithographed MS. of Swedenborg, Section V, pp. 25 to 27.
Respecting the date when these colloquia were written, see Document 313, no. 132.
"Codices 8 to 10.-Arcana Coelestia."
Bjrnstjerna describes Codex 5 as containing, "Various papers belonging to the first draught of the Arcana Coelestia." It contains the general contents of Genesis, chapters xxvi to xliii.
Codex 10 contains nos. 1749 and 1750 of chapter xiv, and the whole of the original Part II of the Arcana Coelestia, from nos. 1856 to 2789, i. e. Genesis, chapters xvi to xxi.
Codex 9 contains nos. 2894 to 3227, i. e. Genesis, chapters xxiii and xxiv.
Codices 15 to 19 contain nos. 3028 to 6626, or Genesis, chapters and xxv to 1.
Codices 20 to 26 contain nos. 6697 to 10,837, or Exodus, chapters i to xl.
Codex 80 in quarto contains an explanation of chapter xxii; and thus fills up the gap between codices 10 and 9.
These codices do not contain the copy of the Arcana Coelestia which Swedenborg prepared for the press--that he sent to London by post--but the original draught of this important work. It does not differ from the work as printed, but the MS. is frequently crossed out and corrected, thus showing the steps Swedenborg took in preparing it.
The whole of this original draught of the Arcana Coelestia was unbound when it was conveyed to the Academy of Sciences by Swedenborg's heirs. It is described in their catalogue (Document 304) thus: "Theological Writings, no. 14.--Three large parcels, in which, according to their superscriptions, is contained the first systematic composition of the Arcana Coelestia and the Apocalypsis Revelata." The sheets belonging to the Arcana Coelestia were bound by A. Nordenskjöld in fifteen substantial volumes.
"Codex 11.--De Charitate."
1. In the catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs (Document 304), under the head of "Philosophical Writings, no. 13," some MSS are described as consisting of "several mixed fragments tied up in parcel, but consisting of two bundles. On one is written 'After 1745' on the other 'Before 1745.'"
The bundle with the superscription "After 1745" seems to have contained in loose sheets various MSS., which were afterwards bound by A. Nordenskjöld, and which appear now in the Official Catalogue as Codex 11. "De Charitate," Codex 12. "De Ultimo Judicio," Codex 13, "De Divinio Amore," and Codex 14. "De Conjugio."
2. Four other MSS. contained in the bundle, which were not included in the Official Catalogue of the Academy, were under A. Nordenskjöld's superintendence, and conveyed to England in 1788 by Wadström. The title of the first MS. was De Domino, respecting which see Document 313, no. 107; the second, was called De Athanasii Symbolo, respecting which see Document, no. 107; the third, Canones, etc. respecting which see no. 143; and the fourth, Quinquie Memorabilia, respecting which se no. 131. In course of time the copies of these MSS., among other MSS., came into the hand of the Rev. M. Sibly, and after his death in 1841 they became the property of the Swedenborg Society.
3. Codex 11, entitled De Charitate, which was one of the MSS contained in the bundle mentioned above, consists of 42 pages, large folio, with leaves 17 and 18 missing. Pages 1 and 2 contain an analysis of the treatise; but the contents of p. 2 are creased out. Then come 32 pages on the "Doctrine of Charity," under twelve heads or chapters, or which chapters VIII and IX, written on leaves 17 and 18, are partly wanting. Of these 32 pages a copy was made under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld, and conveyed to England in 1783; and another copy was subsequently furnished to C. A. Tulk, Esq. by G. J. Billberg, Secretary of the Society "Pro Fide et Charitate" in Stockholm (see Note 119, Vol. I, p. 705). From the latter copy o the Swedenborg Society printed an edition in 1840, bearing the title, Doctrina de Charitate. But the analysis of the treatise on pages 1 and 2 was not published; nor were the headings of the sections of each chapter published together, as Swedenborg had written them.
After leaf 20 follow eight pages closely written and difficult to read, which contain a re-cast of chapter I and part of chapter II; this recast and amplification is most important. Whether Swedenborg intended this as the beginning of a new treatise on Charity, or whether these articles were intended to replace the corresponding articles in the beginning of the published treatise on "The Doctrine of Charity," it is difficult to decide. A portion of chapter II seems to have been lost, for the MS. closes in the middle of the sentence.
On the last page is the introduction and synopsis of chapter XII of the treatise on "Charity."
Respecting the time when this MS. was written, see Document 313, no. 126.
In 1869 the editor of these Documents saw through the press a photo-lithographic reproduction of the whole of Codex 11. It is contained in Section II of Vol. VIII of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg. In order to facilitate the reading of this difficult codex, the editor published a second edition of this MS., which is to serve as a commentary to the first edition. In the production of this commentary the editor caused to be removed from the lithographic stone every indistinct and illegible word--especially in the second, hitherto unpublished, part of the codex--and he had it replaced by what he considers the genuine reading; so that, under the guidance of this commentary, comparatively little difficulty need be experienced by a careful Latin scholar in mastering the contents of this MS.
"Codex 12.--De Ultimo Judicio."
This codex contains four distinct treatises, which, however, are somewhat confused, partly by the fault of the binder, and partly by the original arrangement of the MS. itself. These treatises are as follows: 1. De Verbo, 2. De Ultimo Judicio, 3. De Mundo Spirituali, 4. De Prceptis Decalogi. Concerning the place of this codex in the original catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs, see Codex 11, no. 1.
1. The full title of the first treatise is; De Scriptura Sacra seu Verbo Domini, ab experientia. This was published by Dr. Im. Tafel, in 1854, from the original MS. as Diarium Spirituale, Part VII. Section or Appendix 2; after he had previously published, from a copy prepared under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld, the treatises De Ultimo Judicio and De Mundo Spirtuali, on pp. 1 to 123 of the Diarium Spiritualie, Part VII, appendix 1.
In 1869 the editor of these Documents had a photo-lithographic copy taken of the whole of Codex 12, which constitutes Section IV of Vol. VIII of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg. He inverted the order, however, placing the treatise "De Verbo" first, and those entitled, ADe Ultimo Judicio" and "De Mundo Spirituali" afterwards. For he discovered that nos. 1 to 19, which were published by Dr. Im. Tafel in appendix 2 of Part VII of the Diarium Spirituale, by no means constitute the whole of the treatise De Verbo, and that nos. 20 to 26 are found interspersed throughout the whole of the treatise De Mundo Spirituali. No. 20, for instance, which was not copied by A. Nordenskjöld's copyist on account of having a line drawn through it, may be found in Dr. Im. Tafel's Collation of A. Nordenskjöld's copy with the original MS., on pp. 74 and 75 of the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 2. No. 21 occurs on p. 104 of Appendix I of the same work, beginning on line 2 from the bottom of the page, de sensu spirituali &c.; no 22 on p. 105, second line from foot and extending to line 4 of following page.
No. 23 is the short paragraph entitled, De Verbo, on p. 109; no. 24, the paragraph, De Verbo, on p. 111. No. 25 we could not discover, but no. 26 is the paragraph, De Verbo, on p. 115.
In the photo-lithographic edition which fills pages 1 to 35 in Section IV of Vol. VIII of Swedenborg's photo-lithographed MSS., all the paragraphs belonging to the treatise De Verbo, from nos. 1 to 26, follow in consecutive order. Respecting the contents of this MS., and the place it occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 113.
2. The treatise entitled De Ultimo Judicio begins with 14 chapters on the following subjects: "The English, the Dutch, Calvin, Melancthon, Luther, Zinzendorf and the Moravians, the Quakers, the Saints of the Roman Catholics, Mahomet and the Mahometans, the Roman Catholics, the Africans, the Gentiles."--These subjects fill the first 26 pages of the MS. treatise.
On the middle of p. 26 follows a treatise on the "Last Judgment," occupying 26 more pages, and containing the following headings or chapters: "The Last Judgment effected on the Protestants or the Reformed; the he-goats, by whom are represented those who are in faith separate from charity; the dragon, faith alone; conclusion." Afterwards follow two chapters on Love, and on the Jews. The treatise on the "Last Judgment" is divided into 110 paragraphs or numbers, which are continued through the chapter on Love. The contents of these numbers are given, in conclusion, in the form of an abstract, which covers three additional pages. Respecting the place which this MS. occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 111.
This treatise, as has been stated above, was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1, from a copy which was brought to England by Wadström, in 1768. In its printed form it extends from pp. 1 to 83 in that volume. In the work on the "Last Judgment," printed on pp. 43 to 74, the numbers of the paragraphs are omitted. The abstract of the treatise where reference is made to those few, is printed on pp. 118 to 123; and, in addition, a general statement respecting the doctrine of the "Last Judgment," which evidently belongs to this work, is printed on p. 113.
In the photo-lithographic edition of Swedenborg's MSS. this treatise occupies pp. 36 to 96 of Section IV, Vol. VIII. In this edition all the parts of the treatise are printed in their proper order.
3. The treatise entitled De Mundo Spirituali consists of miscellaneous articles which occupy the thirty following pages of Codex 12.
The subjects treated of are as follows: "Leibnitz and Wolf, Newton, London, the Moravians, the Jews, the Dutch, the Moravians in London;" further, "The love of knowing, food, degrees and the spiritual world [a most important paper], the English, marriage and adultery." This MS. contains further a chapter wherein it is proved that "doing good without struggling against evils, is doing good from self and not from the Word;" and it closes with several paragraphs on Faith, containing the outline of the "Doctrine of Faith," published in l763. Respecting the place which this MS. occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, nos. 112 and 115.
This MS. was printed by Dr. Im. Tafel in the Diarium Spiritualie, Part VII, Appendix 1, pages 84 to 117, intermixed with paragraphs belonging to treatises 1, 2, and 4, of Codex 12; he used for this purpose the copy which was brought to England by Wadström in 1788. A photo-lithographic copy of the original MS. fills pages 97 to 120 of the Photo-lithographed MSS., Section IV, Vol. VIII.
4. On the six concluding pages of Codex 12, which are partly blank, are contained the outlines of a work on the "Precepts of the Decalogue," which was to consist of seven chapters. Stray paragraphs on the same subject are scattered through Treatise 3. See also Document 313, no. 114.
The substance written on the six pages was published by Dr Im. Tafel from the original MS. in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Section 2, pp. 38 to 41. The stray paragraphs on the same subject he printed from A. Nordenskjöld's copy on pp. 107, 112, and 114, of Appendix or Section 1.
The photo-lithographic reproduction of all the materials belonging to this projected work occupies pp. 121 to 124 of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., Section IV, Vol. VIII.
"Codex 13.--De Divine Amore."
This is the original of the treatises on "Divine Love" and "Divine Wisdom," published as an appendix to the Apocalypsis Explicata. It contains 72 pages in large oblong folio. Mr. Hindmarsh published it in 1789 from a copy made under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld, which was brought to England in l783 by his brother C. F. Nordenskjöld. The copy seems to agree on the whole with the original MS., but on p. 73 the subject of the creation is discussed in the form of a few general statements, filling about half a page, which have not been copied by Nordenskjöld's amanuensis.
Respecting the contents of this MS., and the date of its composition, see Document 313, nos. 122 and 123; and concerning the place which it occupies in the Original Catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs, see Codex 11, no. 1.
A photo-lithographic reproduction of this codex is contained in Section III Vol. VIII of Swedenborg's photo-lithographed MSS., where it fills 80 pages.
"Codex 14.--De Conjugio."
This little treatise on "Marriage," which in the original fills nineteen pages, large oblong folio, was published by Dr. Immanuel Tafel from the original MS. as Appendix IV to the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII. An English translation of it was printed some time ago in New York, but not for public sale. Concerning the place of this MS. in the Original Catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs, see Codex 111 no. 1; and respecting the time when Swedenborg wrote it, see Document 313, no. 134.
"Codices 15 to 26."
See Codices 8 to 10.
"Codices 27 to 35.--Apocalypsis Explicata."
These codices contain the first draught of the Apocalypsis Explicata, and do not differ from the copy which Swedenborg wrote out for the printer (Codices 107 to 109), except in this particular, that the separate doctrinal treatises which in the last volume of the Apocalypsis Explicata are appended to almost every numbered paragraph in the form of "continuations," are towards the close not written out in the rough copy. Besides, the copy which Swedenborg wrote out for the press extends only to no. 1229, while in the rough copy three additional numbers, viz. nos. 1230 to 1232 are written out. Of these a photo-lithographic copy has been taken on p. 1164 of Vol. X of Swedenborg's photo-lithographed MSS. For further particulars respecting the "Apocalypse Explained," see Document 313, no. 106.
"Codex 36--Excerpts from Aristotle, Plato, &c."
Bjornstjerna describes this volume as "Various excerpts from Aristotle, Plato, Leibnitz, &c." Swedenborg's heirs give a minute description of its contents in Document 304, under the head of "Theological Writings, no. 12, Vol. I."
This volume contains:
1. The results of a philological investigation into the nature of the Soul; where Swedenborg collects under appropriate heads all that the following authorities have said on the nature of the soul, viz, Plato, Aristotle, Augustinus, Grotius, Leibnitz, Wolf, Malebranche, Descartes, Rydellius, Bilfingerus, and the Sacred Scripture.
In Codex 37 are added to this list Cicero, Plautus, and Florus.
The extracts from the Sacred Scripture have been reproduced by the photo-lithographic process, as Section XIV, Vol. III of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS. See pages 491 to 496.
2. Abstracts of Mathematics and Physics on pages 222 to 228, and also 247 to 249.
A photo-lithographic of these abstracts is contained in Section XI of the same volume, where it fills pages 175 to 179.
3. Various philosophical and theological subjects which are scattered through the Codex, have been photo-lithographed as Section XII of the above volume, pages 180 to 183.
The subjects treated of are the destruction of the earth; the nature of human philosophy;* definitions of wisdom; natural religion; a first attempt at giving the internal sense of the Lord's prayer.
* The article is translated in Note 166, I.
4. Swedenborg's first investigation into the nature of the correspondences and representatives of the Sacred Scriptures, which is scattered through the volume from pp. 204 to 267. For further particulars, see Document 313, "Introduction to Rational Psychology, between 1740 and 1742.
This constitutes Section XIII of the photo-lithographed volume mentioned above, pp. 183 to 191.
5. Various prospectuses, tables of contents, and digests of the Regnum Animale, which are photo-lithographed in Section XVIII of Vol. VI of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., pp. 349 to 353. These Prospectuses are thoroughly discussed in Document 313, OEconomia Regni Animalis, 1738-1740.
"Codex 37.--Index Variorum Philosophicorum."
This Codex me do not find recorded in the Original Catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs; unless it be "Theological Writings, no. 11, Vol. VIII," which Dr. Im. Tafel supposes to be a fifth volume of the "Index to the Adversaria and the Diary" (Codices 42 to 45), which has been lost.*
* See his Preface to the "Adversaria," Vol. I, p. iv.
Its contents are Definitions in Metallurgy, Mining, Chemistry, Botany, Anatomy, Ontology, with excerpts from Cicero, Plautus, Florus (see Codex 36, no. 1), and from the works of Wolf consists of 263 pages, small oblong folio.
The portions treating on Ontology, from pp. 111 to 119, have been photo-lithographed as Section XVII of Vol. VI of the Swedenborg MSS., pp. 313 to 348.
"Codex 38.--Index Physiologicorum."
Swedenborg's heirs give a pretty accurate description of this codex under the head of "Theological Writings, no. 12, Vol. VII." It contains;
1. Swedenborg's own Index to the a OEconomia Regni Animalis, Part II.
2. His Index to the Regnum Animale, Parts I and II.
These two Indexes fill pp. 1 to 58 of the Codex; they are photo-lithographed as Section I of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., Vol. VI, where they occupy 29 pages.
3. A collection of Bible passages, concerning which see Document 313, no. 81.
A photo-lithographic reproduction of this part of the Codex is contained in Section VI of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., Vol. VIII, where it occupies 32 pages.
"Codex 39.--Index Biblicus Nominum Propriorum."
This Codex is entered in the Catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs (Document 304) as "Theological Writings, no. 11, Vol. I." For further particulars, see Codex 4.
"Codices 40 and 41.--Index Biblicus.
These codices are classed by Swedenborg's heirs under "Theological Writings, no. 11, "Vols. II and III. For farther particulars respecting them, see Codex 4.
"Codices 42 to 45.--Index Memorabilium."
Björnstierna describes these codices as containing an "Index to the Memorabilia of no. 2." In the catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs they appear as "Theological Writings, no. 11. Vols. IV to VII;" we read there concerning them, "In Vol. 1V towards the close begins a new system of paging which runs through Vols. V, VI, and VII, and stops in Vol. VIII with p. 1301." From this, we own, there is some ground for believing that this Index originally comprised not four but five volumes, especially as Dr. Im. Tafel declares (Preface to Adversaria, Vol. I, p. iv) that "several articles, viz. Amor, Cerebrum, Ecclesia, Fides, Hypocrita, and Verbum are not completed in the first four volumes," and that "their substance had to be supplied by him from the body of the work itself." Still we believe that there are also some grounds for maintaining that the "vol. VIII" in question is not the fifth volume of the "Index to the Memorabilia," but Codex 37, which otherwise would not be recorded in the list of MSS, prepared by Swedenborg's heirs.
For further particulars respecting this Index, see Document 313, no. 98.
The four codices mentioned above were borrowed in 1845 by the Swedenborg Society of London for the use of Dr. Im. Tafel, who published their contents in 1846 and 1847 as the Diarium Spirituale, Part V, Vols. 1 and 2. They contain an Index of Parts I, II, and IV of the Diarium Spirituale, and of the spiritual experience recorded in the Adversaria.
"Codex 46.--Index to a MS. de Amore Conjugiali."
Björnstierna speaks of this as of the "index to a MS. on Conjugial Love, which cannot be found." In the original catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs it occurs under the head of "Theological Writings, no. 12, Vol. IV."
In respect to its contents, see Codex 7, no. 2.
"Codex 47.--An Index to the Concordia book."
It is classed by Swedenborg's heirs as "Theological Writings, no. 12, Vol. VI," and they describe it as consisting mostly of blank paper, and also that it seems to have been intended for an Index to the Concordia Book.
Its contents are as follows:
1. Under the head of "Christ" are quotations from the Apostolic, the Nicene, and Athanasian, creeds, by which Swedenborg proves that the faith of the primitive Christian Church was in one God, and that they did not then believe in a son of God from eternity.
2. After many blank pages, at the close of the book, is a page entitled "Historia Ecclesiastica Nov Ecclesi," where Swedenborg gives a Sketch of a New Church History. This sketch has been photo-lithographed as Section I of Vol. VIII of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS. It constitutes also Document 301 in Section XI; respecting the date of this MS., see Document 313, no. 147.
"Codex 48.--Annotata de Calvino, &c."
This codex is recorded in the Original Catalogue of Swedenborg's heirs under the head of "Theological Writings, no. 12, Vol. V." We read there respecting its contents: "Vol. V consists of 274 pages, mostly blank; yet on p. 3 there are some notes on the Council of Trent; on p. 7 some of the author's own memorabilia, respecting his conversations with Calvin; on p. 111 the God and Saviour Jesus Christ is treated of; on p. 201 the doctrine of the New Church is summarized."
Prof. Sjsten mentions in the "Official Catalogue" (Document 305, A) that "five leaves have been cut out."
The contents of this volume mere published in 1860 by Dr. Im. Tafel as Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Section 5.
The contents as stated by Swedenborg himself on pp. 1 and 269, are as follows:
1. "On justification and good works with the Roman Catholics, from the Council of Trent in a summary." See pp. 1 to 8 in printed copy.
2. "That the faith which at the present day prevails among the Reformed, has been introduced from the Roman Catholics." The substance of this article Dr. Im. Tafel gives in his Notes on pp. 20 and 21.
3. "Conversation with Calvin and fifty of his followers concerning the person of Christ, as this is taught in the Athanasian Creed." See pp. 9 and 10 in printed copy.
4. "Conversation with Calvin and some priests, his followers, concerning the trinity of persons from the Athanasian Creed." See pp. 10 and 11. Ibid.
"Something concerning the person of Calvin," at the close of the same article.
5. "Conversation with some of the Reformed clergy on Justification." See p. 12. Ibid.
6. "Concerning the remission of sins; Canon on p. 101." This portion is torn out from the volume.
On the cover of the volume, before p. 1, is written "Canons, p. 101. The body and digest of the confessions of faith of the Reformed, Geneva, 1654." This seems to indicate the original contents of this section of the Codex. But at a later period Swedenborg appears to have entered there a summary of his treatise entitled, "Coronis, or Appendix, to the True Christian Religion," which summary was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1846 in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1, pp. 163-169.
This summary was copied under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld between 1783 and 1788, together with another tractate entitled: "The Abomination of Desolation," &c., and Invitation to the New Church," which were likewise published by Dr. Im. Tafel in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1, pp. 137 to 160. In that copy the tractate concerning "The Abomination," &c. comes first, and the "Summary of the Coronis" last. At the close of the copy, which is now in the possession of the Swedenborg Society, A. Nordenskjöld (see Document 313, no. 149) makes the following statement: "What has here been copied is the most interesting of all the Swedenborg MSS.
It is the last he wrote before his death. The original I have in hand, but I shall not send it, until it is required; perhaps in summer when an opportunity offers. Meanwhile the copy itself may be examined carefully by 'Adjunct' Knös,23s6or Pastor Tybeck,302 and put into such a shape that it may be printed abroad as a Supplement to the Coronis; or together with the Coronis in a new edition which they intend to issue in England.--I have not spoken quite truly. The original is in Stockholm in narrow oblong folio volumes bound in parchment, marked no. 50 and also no. 48 in the Academy of Sciences. I am anxious that this copy should be most carefully examined, and afterwards printed together with the Coronis. I am unable to find more that belongs to a Supplement to the Coronis."
When this statement of A. Nordenskjöld is carefully considered, it appears plainly that the "Summary of the Coronis" was originally in Codex 48, but was afterwards torn out. That this Codex was intact at the time when it was delivered by Swedenborg's heirs to the Academy, appears from the circumstance that they gave a pretty accurate account of the contents of the volume, but did not mention the fact of five leaves being torn out; which, nevertheless, is a very palpable fact in connection with it. But if these leaves were not then torn out, it follows that the "Summary of the Coronis" did not then have a special title in the volume; for if it had, Swedenborg's heirs would have noticed it, as they did in the case of the other sections contained in the Codex. In this case, however, it follows further that the full title of the "Coronis" which is given to this summary in the copy itself, and which Dr. Im. Tafel also gave to the printed copy on p. 161, was inserted by the amanuensis, (probably by A. Nordenskjöld himself, as it is not in Johansen's handwriting); and was not furnished by Swedenborg. For further particulars respecting the contents of this summary, see Document 313, no. 148.
7. "Concerning the God and Saviour, Jesus Christ." See pp. 13 to 15 in the printed copy.
8. "A specimen and outline of the doctrine of the New Church in summary." See pp. 15 to 19, Ibid.
The substance of what Swedenborg wrote on the cover of the Codex is printed by Dr. Im. Tafel among his notes on p. 22.
"Codex 49.--Biblical sentences collected under leading heads."
This Codex is classed by Swedenborg's heirs under "Theological Writings, no. 12, Vol. III, and they furnish the following account of it: "Vol, III contains on 180 pages sentences from the Sacred Scriptures, collected under various heads, such as Apostles, Miracles, Christ, God the Father and the Son, &c."
This is one of those volumes concerning which the "Official Catalogue" (Document 308, A) reports that it had been "borrowed by Nordenskjöld," and which the Secretary of the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm declared to be missing from their library in 1841 (see Document 305, B). It was conveyed to England by Wadström in 1788, and came into the possession of the Swedenborg Society in 1841, as appears from Document 309, E. It was returned by the Swedenborg Society to the Academy of Sciences after Dr. Im. Tafel had first printed its contents in 1845 under the title, Dicta Probantia Veteris et Novi Testamenti collecta et breviter explicata. Ab Emanuele Swedenborg" (Corroborating Passages from the Old and New Testaments, collected and briefly explained by Emanuel Swedenborg).
The subjects, which are treated in alphabetical order, are as follows:
1. "The Lord's Advent; Consummation; the New Church." In the Index the following words are added: "The subjects follow is this order: I. the Consummation of the Church; II. the Last Judgment; III. the Lord's Advent; IV. the Restoration and the Nature of the New Church."
2. "The Apostles and their Miracles."
3. "Charity and Good Works."
4. "Christ."
5. "Heaven and Salvation."
6. "The Holy Supper.
7. "Damnation to Hell."
8. "God the Father, and the Holy Spirit."
9. "The Gospel."
10. "Faith."
11. "Imputation."
12. "The Last Judgment. See also Consummation and Redemption."
13. "Justification; Regeneration; the Church."
14. "The Law and Works."
15. "Sin; also Original Sin."
16. "Repentance."
17. "Predestination."
18. "Redemption. See also Judgment, and Regeneration."
Swedenborg in treating these subjects first gives corroborating and explanatory passages from the writings of the Apostles; afterwards from the Gospels, and finally from the Prophets.
"Codex 60,--Index to the Concordia Book."
Swedenborg's heirs class this Codex as "Theological Writings, no. 12, Vol. II," and they say respecting it, "Vol. II was found to contain an Index to the concordia pia, published in Leipzig in 1786, 8vo." Bjrnstjerna gives the following significant description of this volume: "An Index to the Concordia Book, with several interesting matters Swedenborg wrote just before his death."
This is one of the few MSS. respecting which it is stated in the Official Catalogue (Document 308, A) that it had been "borrowed by Nordenskjöld," and which has not found its way back to the Library of the Academy of Sciences. Fortunately, however, a transcript of its contents has been secured, which is now in the possession of the Swedenborg Society. Of the greater portion, indeed, two copies, written by two different persons, have been preserved. The transcript was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1, pp. 137-160. For further particulars respecting it, see Codex 48, no. 6 in the present Document, and also Document 313, no. 150.
Its contents are as follows:
1. "The Abomination of Desolation: the Consummation of the Age, and the Fulness of Time;" pp. 1 37-142 in the printed copy. Mere outlines of these subjects are given in three different forms.
2. "Invitation to the New Church, pp. 142 to 160.
The full title of this paper is as follows:
"An Invitation to the New Church addressed to the whole Christian world, and an exhortation that they should worthily receive the Lord, who foretold that He would come into the world on account of that Church, and to that Church."
The plan of this "Invitation" is first stated in general terms on p. 143.
The whole of this paper was arranged into 59 consecutive paragraphs, probably by the amanuensis; but in reality it consists of at least two distinct papers, which run parallel with one another, and do not follow one another consecutively. The first of these papers extends from no. 1 to no. 29; and the second from no. 30 to no. 59.
Respecting the place which this MS. occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 150.
"Codex 51.--De Cultu et Amore Dei, [Pars Tertist.]
This Codex contains the materials of the unfinished third part of the work on "The Worship and Love of God." It exists from nos. 111 to 125 in proof-sheet (16 pages), with the exception of page 11 which is blank. Nos. 118 to 131 exist in manuscript, and from this the contents of the missing page 11 can be supplied.
The work was evidently never finished by Swedenborg; for at the close of the Codex is a plan of the whole work, in which those parts which had been written out by him, have been checked off. Swedenborg's printed copy of Part II, which had been published by him in London, 1745, is likewise bound up in this Codex; but his printed copy of Part I is no. 68 of the collection. Short abstracts of the contents are written on the margin of that volume probably for the purpose of compiling an Index.
All these three parts, i. e. Part I, with its marginal notes, Part II, and Part III, which consists partly of proof-sheets, and partly of manuscript, have been Photo-lithographed its Vol. VII of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg. Parts I and II which were printed in quarto in 1745, for the sake of uniformity, were reproduced in folio. Of Part III, nos. 111 to 119 were copied from the proof-sheets, and nos. 120 to 131 from the MS. The Photo-lithographed copy covers 114 pages in folio.
Concerning the contents of this work, see Document 313, nos. 78 and 79.
"Codex 52.--Letters to Boyer."
Particulars concerning the history of this volume, which had been borrowed from the Academy by Wadström, may be found in Document 309, L. Most of these letters were printed in 1787 in a Journal, published in Stockholm by the Philanthropic Exegetical Society, entitled, Samlingar fr Philantroper. They are all contained in Section IX of the present work. In a footnote to Document 221, on p. 336, further particulars may be found concerning these letters.
"Codex 53.--Anatomica et Physiologica."
This Codex is one of those which Swedenborg's heirs described under the head of "Theological Writings, no. 10," thus: "Several larger and smaller fragments written in various styles of handwritings, yet apparently by Swedenborg himself; they seem to belong to his OEconomia Regni Animalis, and to his Regnum Animale." The contents of the present Codex are, as follows:
1. Chapter XXIII on the periosteum, and chapter XXIV on the female breast; the former filling six and the latter ten pages. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 69, Part I.
2. Chapter XXV on the ear and hearing, and chapter XXVI on the eye and sight. The former fills twenty-eight, and the latter forty pages; of the former the end is missing, and of the latter both the beginning and the end.
Concerning these chapters, see Document 313, no. 69, Part III.
These two chapters are reproduced in Vol. VI of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., pp. 108 to 176.
3. Chapters XXVII to XLIV on the male and female organs of generation. This treatise fills 185 pages in the original MS. For further particulars, see Document 312, no. 69, Part II.
Thus far Codex 53 contains a continuation of the Regnum Animale; the rest of the volume consists of the following excerpts and preparations for that work:
4. Extracts from the works of Martin Schurigius.276 These excerpts fill eleven pages in the original MS.
5. Excerpts in Anatomy from Leeuwenhoek,277 occupying six pages in the original MS. reduced in Vol. VI of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MS.
These excerpts are reproduced in Vol. VI of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., pp. 177 to 184.
6. Swedenborg's remarks on Swammerdam's278 Biblia Natur.
This digest of Swammerdam has been printed in Vol. VI. of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., pp. 184 to 264. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 70.
The volume closes with a short summary on the nature of blood.
"Codex 54.--Physiologica et Methaphysica."
Page 1 to 234 of this Codex were published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1849, as Part VII of the Regnum Animale, and also under the separate title of Eman. Swedenborgii Opusculum de Anima (Trestise on the Soul by Emanuel Swedenborg) Respecting the contents of this portion of the codex, see Document 313, no. 67.
2. Pages 235 to 256 contain the substance of a metaphysical treatise bearing the title Ontologia.
A photo-lithographic reproduction of this treatise is contained in Vol. VI of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg, pp. 323 to 342. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 68.
The volume doses with a short summary on the nature of blood.
"Codex 55.-Anatomica et Physiologica."
This codex fills 636 pages, folio, and is thus one of the most extensive of the whole collection. Its contents are as follows:
I. A treatise on the larger and lesser brains, the prolonged marrow and the spinal marrow, and the nerves in general.
The subject is treated in thirty-eight chapters, and throughout Swedenborg, as in the published parts of the Regnum Animale, first quotes the old anatomists, and on the basis of their facts makes his inductions.
The subjects of the chapters are as follows:
1. The brain in general, nos. 2 to 29. The first two pages containing no. 1 and part of no. 2 are missing.
2. The bones of the skull in general, nos. 30 to 59
3. The dura mater and its processes, nos. 60 to 118.
4. The sinuses of the dura mater, nos, 120 to 186. This chapter also treats of the universal principles of the generation of the blood, and the causes of its circulation.
5. The arteries and veins of the cerebrum, cerebellum, and the medulla, oblongata, nos. 187 to 231.
6. The pia mater or the thin meninx, nos. 233 to 251.
7. The brain; its substances and organs in general, nos. 252 to 269.
8. The corpus callosum, nos. 270 to 251.
9. The fornix, &c., nos. 282 to 295.
10. The septum lucidum, nos. 296 to 305.
11. The lateral ventricles and the communicatory apertures (foramina), nos. 306 to 324.
12. The corpora striata, nos. 325 to 336.
13. The prolongations (crura) of the medulla oblongata, or the quills (calami) of the optic nerves, nos. 337 to 350.
14. The choroid plexuses, nos. 351 to 365.
15. The testes, nates, and the lymphatic duct, nos. 366 to 353.
16. The pineal gland, nos. 384 to 401.
17. The third ventricle, nos. 402 to 416.
18. The funnel (infundibulum), nos. 417 to 432.
19. The pituitary gland; the production of the dura mater towards the receptacles of the sella, and the pituitary gland; the sphenoid bone, nos. 433 to 454.
20. The receptacula cavernosa, nos. 455 to 464.
21. The wonderful net (ret mirabile), nos. 465 to 479.
22. The functions of the brain and its chemical laboratory in general, nos. 480 to 491.
23. A comparison between the brain considered as a large gland, and the glands of the body, nos. 492 to 504. The whole of this chapter is crossed out.
24. The cerebellum; its substances and form, nos. 505 to 524.
25. The medulla oblongata in general, nos. 525 to 536.
26. The large valve of the brain, the fourth ventricle, and its choroid plexus, nos. 537 to 556.
27. The annular protuberance, and also the pyramida and olive shaped bodies, nos. 557 to 571.
28. The spinal marrow in general, nos. 572 to 576.
29. The vertebral column, nos. 577 to 593.
30. The coverings and membranes of the spinal marrow nos. 594 to 610.
31. The blood-vessels of the spinal marrow, nos. 611 to 632.
32. The spinal marrow; its substances and the production of the principal nerves, nos. 633 to 653. An important chapter.
33. The nerves in general the first pair of nerves, and the olfactory nerves, no. 654 to 670.
34. The second pair, or the optic never, nos. 670 to 685.
35. The nerves in general; with some theoretical remarks on fibres, 686 to 709.
36. The brains of birds and fishes, nos. 710 to 724.
37. The cerebra and medullae of insects, nos. 725 to 738.
35. Monstrous and petrified brains, nos. 739 to 754.
The numbers of the paragraphs as given here do not correspond with those written by Swedenborg in the body of his work; for in chapter XV by mistake he jumped back from no. 370 to 371 and then proceeded to 172, and so on; and then again in chapter XXXIII from no. 459 he jumped back to no. 450, and in chapter XXXIV he jumped from no. 459 to 560.
II. A treatise on the diseases of the brain, which fills 66 pages.
A part of this treatise as far as no. 684 seems to have been prepared for the press; the rest exists in the form of a rough draught.
The subjects treated of are as follows: apoplexy, hemiplexy, paraplexy and parapoplexy; sleep, lethargy, coma, &c.; epilepsy; sneezing, cough, spasms, tetanus, convulsions, tremor, &c. paralysis and paresia; catarrh, rheumatism, neuralgia; hydrocephalus and hydrope; vertigo, swimming of the head and swoon; deliquium, syncope, asphyxia; catalepsy; ecstasis; somnambulism; nightmare; sleeplessness; fanatical imagination; loss of memory; stupidity and loss of wit; melancholy; hypochondria; hysterics; feverish delirium; delirium tremens; mania; insanity; hydrophobia; headache; tarantula.
"As a preface to this treatise," says Swedenborg, "read what has been written in the quarto treatise (Codex 74) on the diseases of the fibres in general."
The whole of Codex 55, as far as it has been here described, is printed in Vol. V of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., where it fills 627 pages. Respecting the place which this MS. occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 56, A.
III. On the skin, its miliary glands, and the organ of touch, consisting of eleven pages.
It constitutes Section II of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS.., Vol. VI, pp. 1 to II. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 69, Part III.
IV. A fragment of one page containing a description of the tongue, the palate, the uvula, and the salvary glands is photo-lithographed as a part of Section II in Vol. VI, where it occupies p. 12.
"Codex 56.-Rikdagsskrifter" Political Papers for the diet).
This volume consists of various documents in folio, quarto, and octave, bound together, and contains altogether 58 leaves. Most of its contents were published by Dr. Kahl, in 1849, in his work entitled, "Nya Kyrkan och dess inflytande p Theologiens Studium i Swerige" (The New Church and its influence on the study of Theology in Sweden), Part II.
The whole of the contents of this Codex in an English translation has been introduced into Section VI of the present work, where it fills Documents 172 to 196; with the exception of some of Swedenborg's letters to Nordencrantz, and of Nordencrantz's replies which have been taken from the Bergius Collection of Letters, &c., in the Academy of Sciences See also Document 313, no. 110.
"Codex 57.-Anatomica, Physiologica Varia."
This Codex is Swedenborg's Common-Place Book for the year 1740. It contains 126 pages folio, of which seven are missing. The contents are as follows:
1. A paper entitled: Philosophia universalium characteristica et mathematica. It fills five pages, which are reproduced as Section XI of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., Vol. VI, pp. 265 to 269. Respecting its contents, see Document 313, no. 53.
2. A fragment on ossification and the bones of the skull. It consisted originally of 42 paragraphs, of which, however, paragraphs 13 to 36 are missing. It constitutes Section XII of the Photo-lithographed Swedenborg MSS., Vol. VI, pp. 269 to 276. Respecting the character of this paper, see Document 313, no. 54.
3. A long paper on the dura mater, which is a continuation of the former, and contains 107 paragraphs. It extends from pp. 276 to 310 in Vol, VI of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., where it appears as Section XIII. The date of the beginning of the paper is January 13, 1740. For further particulars, see likewise Document 313, no. 54.
4. A short paper on the brain, while it is intent on study, and also another little paper entitled Generatio eminens.
They appear on p. 311 of Vol. VI mentioned above.
5. The motion of the brain and the dura mater, printed on p. 312 of the same volume.
6. A paper on the falciform sinus, written on January 31, 1740, which constitutes a portion of Section XIV of the same volume, pp. 313 to 316.
7. Various extracts from Heister279 and Morgagni,280 which fill eight pages in the original Codex. Heister's experience on the dura mater and the sinuses, is printed on pp. 316 and 317 of the Photo-lithographed MSS., Vol. VI.
8. The expansion and compression of the longitudinal sinus, 2 pages.
Extracts from Boerhavius,281 Nuckius,282 Winslow,283 and Albinus,284 which fill 19 pages.
10. A short paper on the use of the ganglia, where reference is made to a Transactio prima, in which this subject is discussed (viz. Vol. I of the OEconomia, &c., nos. 274 to 476).
11. A paper on the origin of the dura mater, which is printed on p. 317 of Vol. VI, mentioned above.
12. A paper an corpuscular philosophy in a summary.--This paper is reproduced on p. 318 of the same volume. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 55.
13. Baglivius82 on the fibres of motion, 4 pages.
14. Lancisi285 on the ganglia, one page.
15. Extracts from Leeuwenhoek,277 14 pages.
16. Extracts from Swammerdam,278 16 pages.
17. A paper on swallowing and things swallowed, on vomiting and excrements; four pages, which constitute Section XV of the Photo-lithographed Swedenborg MSS., Vol. VI, pp. 319 to 322.
"Codex 58.-Anatomica et Physiologica."
This codex, which contains 241 pages, folio, is the first cast of Part III, and of a portion of Part IV of the New Series of the Regnum Animale, (see Document 313, nos. 73-76). It was written by Swedenborg in 1743 and 1744 during his stay in Holland and England. See Note 164, XIII.
I. It treats of the following subjects:
1. Prologue, which occupies pages 2 and 3.
2. A chapter on the carotids, filling the 9 following pages.
3. The sense of taste, pp. 12 to 31.
4. The sense of smell, pp. 32 to 43.
5. The sense of touch and the layers of the skin, pp. 44 to 60.
6. The ear and the sense of hearing, pp. 61 to 83.
7. The eye and the sense of sight, pp. 84 to 121.
8. Physical and optical experiments, pp. 122 to 128. Concerning this chapter, see Document 313, no. 75.
9. An epilogue on sensation in general, pp. 129 to 150.
10. A summary exposition of sensation and affection, pp. 150 to 159.
11. The same subject continued, with an application of the analogy furnished by the rules of music, pp. 160 to 157.
12. The understanding and its operation, pp. 187 to 196.
13. An Index to the preceding. 4 pages.
The whole of this treatise (which is the first cast of Part III of the New Series of the Regnum Animale), with the exception of chapters III, V and VIII, was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1848 as Part IV of the Regnum Animale. The parts which he omitted, it would seem by order of the Swedenborg Association (see his critical note to p. 42, on p. 235) who defrayed the expenses of the publication, were reproduced by the photo-lithographic process and are contained in Vol. VI of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg; the chapter on the sense of touch, pp. 41 to 57; and the physical and optical experiments, pp. 102-107. Respecting the place which this treatise occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 73.
II. The treatise which occupies pp. 198 to 241 in the Codex, contains the beginning of Part IV of the New Series of the Regnum Animale, and treats of the Brain. It is not complete. The chapters which the author fully prepared are as follows:
1. Preface to the part on the Brain, pp. 198 to 202.
2. The brain; its structure, motion, and function in general, pp. 203 to 233.
3. The dura mater pp. 234 to 241.
For further particulars respecting this treatise on the Brain, see Document 313, no. 176.
The whole of this treatise is photo-lithographed as Section VI of the Photo-lithographed MSS., of Swedenborg, Vol. VI, and extends from pp. 58 to 101.
In addition to the two treatises already mentioned there are bound up in this Codex the following distinct papers:
III. Excerpts from J. F. Cassebohm's286 tract "De Aure Humana," 11 pages.
IV. A chapter on the muscles of the face and abdomen, which consists of 13 pages, and is reproduced as Section III of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., Vol. VI. This chapter is discussed in Document 313, no. 74.
"Codices 59 to 61.--Explicatio in Verbum Historicum
Vet. Test. Tomi III."
The contents of these volumes are very well described by Swedenborg's heirs under the head of "Theological Writings, no. 3" (Document 304).
"Vol. I contains an explanation of Genesis, chapters i to xxxv; chapters i to iii having been explained twice in a different way. It consists of 1713 numbered paragraphs."
This Codex was published by Dr. Im. Tafel from the original MS, in 1847 and 1848, under the title, Eman. Swedenborgii Adversaria in Libros Veteris Testamenti, Part I, Vols. I and 2.
Vol. 2 contains an explanation of the remaining chapters of Genesis, and of Exodus, chapters i to xiv. It consists of 2476 numbered paragraphs.
It was published by Dr. Im. Tafel from the original MS. in1851 and 1852, under the title, Adversaria, Part I, Vols. 3 and 4.
Vol. 3 consists of the following treatises;
1. The remaining chapters of Exodus, which fill 4450 numbered paragraphs. This portion of the Codex was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1853 and 1854 from the original MS. under the title, Adversaria, Part I, Vols. 5 and 6.
2. Joshua, nos. 4451 to 4636.
3. Judges, nos. 4637 to 4856.
4. Ruth, nos. 4857 to 4860.
5. The books of Samuel, nos. 4861 to 5180.
6. The books of Kings, nos. 5181 to 5396.
7. Chronicles, nos. 5397 to 5409.
Nos. 2 to 7 were published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1842 from a copy prepared by a friend in Sweden. He entitled it Adversaria, Part II, not knowing the extent of the anteceding portions of this work.
8. Leviticus, nos. 5410 to 6496.
9. Numbers, nos. 6497 to 7648.
10. Deuteronomy, nos. 7649 to 7762.
Nos. 8 to 10 were likewise published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1842 from a copy made by a friend in Sweden. He printed it as Adversaria, III.
In 1846 the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm sent codices 59 to 61 to Dr. Im. Tafel through the mediation of the Swedenborg Society, and thus enabled him to institute a careful comparison of Parts II and III of the Adversaria, which had been printed from a copy, with the original MS.
The result of this collation is contained in a Supplement to the Adversaria which was printed in 1854, pp. 1 to 60.
Concerning the place which the Adversaria occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 82.
"Codex 62.-Esajas et Jeremias Explicati."
This Codex is evidently a continuation of the three preceding codices. It contains a spiritual explanation of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah and fills 107 pages. It was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1843 from a copy prepared by a Swedish friend, under the title, Adversaria, Part IV.
The result of a collation of this printed part with the original MS. is contained in the Supplement to the Adversaria published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1854, pp. 61 to 90.
Respecting the place which this MS. occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no 84.
"Codex 63."
In the Official Catalogue of the Academy the contents of this codex are not indicated, and Prof. Sjsten added simply the words, borrowed by Nordenskjöld. Bjrnstjerna in Document 304 supplies the deficiency by describing this codex thus, an Index to the Memorabilia in Nos. 2 and 95.
This description at once identifies the Codex with one of those conveyed to England by Wadström in 1788, and returned to the Academy of Sciences in 1842 by the Swedenborg Society of London. The description given of this Codex in Document 309, E, is its follows: "The second MS. is of a thin foolscap size, and is an Index to the subject-matter of the volume of the 'Diary' which we have," viz., Codex 2, entitled Memorabilia, Vol. II.
As the whereabouts of Bjrnstjerns's catalogue were not known in 1842, and as the identity of this Codex with Codex 63 could not be established from the Official Catalogue alone, on being returned to the Academy, it was entered in the collection as "Codex 110.-Index to the Spiritual Diary."
Before this Codex was returned to the Academy, permission was given to the Swedenborg Society to have its contents published; which was done by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1845 under the title, "Eman. Swedenborgii Diarium Spirituale, Part VI."
Respecting the date of the composition of this Index, see Document 313, no. 99.
"Codex 65.-Anatomica et Physiologica."
This is a thick quarto volume, containing upwards of 1200 pages. Some of these pages are injured by damp and mould, and are difficult to read.
The contents which consisted originally of three Transactions are as follows:
Transaction I.
1. The cortical substance.-This section originally extended from pp. 1 to 72; of these only pp. 37 to 48 are preserved, together with fragments of pp. 27 to 36, and 49 to 56, which consist of portions of the leaves torn lengthways. We regard it as very probably that the missing portions of this chapter have been utilized by Swedenborg in the preparation of the chapter on the "cortical Substance of the Brain" in Vol. II of the OEconomia Regni Animalis.
2. The medullary or fibrillary substance.-This chapter is complete. It consists of 25 pages containing the experience of the anatomists, and 23 pages of Swedenborg's inductions.
3. The bloodvessels entering the cortical and medullary substances.BThis is a mere fragment; it terminates abruptly on p. 132.
Between Transaction I and what is left of Transaction II, a break of 75 pages occurs.
Transaction II.
1. The motion of the brain.-This chapter lacks a beginning, and opens with no. 43, whence it extends to no. 53; it fills pp. 205 to 233 of the Codex. In no. 45 Swedenborg quotes Malpighi287 on the formation of the brain and heart in the chick; of this quotation eight pages are wanting. This missing portion was printed by Swedenborg in his OEconomia Regni Animalis, Vol. I, no. 242; whence it follows that Codex 65 was utilized by Swedenborg in the preparation of the above work, and that the missing portion of this chapter was probably embodied by him in the chapter on the "Motion of the Brain" in volume II of the OEconomia.
2. The dura mater.-The quotations from the anatomists, which extend from pp. 233 to 284, are all crossed out. They were transferred to the chapter on the dura mater in Codex 55. Swedenborg's induction fills pp. 284 to 316. Pages 309 and 310 are missing.
3. The first sinus of the dura mater, pp. 316 to 344, where it abruptly breaks off.
4. This chapter lacks a beginning. It commences with p. 369 and extends to p. 372.
5. The fourth sinus, pp. 372 to 375.
6. The sinus occipitalis, and the lower sinuses, called the longitudinal and the lateral, pp. 354 to 391.
7. The four sinuses of the sella, equina.-The quotations from the anatomists extend from pp. 392 to 400; Swedenborg's own induction, however, is wanting.
Of this and the following chapter 25 pages are missing.
8. The arteries and veins of the interior of the head, pp. 425 to 523.
a. First argument from the blood-vessels of the spinal marrow, and from the azyga and its branches.--The quotations from the anatomists extend from pp. 523 to 532; but the argument itself from pp. 533 to 569 is missing.
b. Second argument from the ganglia and the intercostal nerve.--The beginning of this chapter, including, as it seems, the greater part of the quotations from the anatomists is lost; but the argument itself extending from pp. 572 to 584 has been preserved.
c. Third argument from the eighth pair of the nerves of the head, called also the par vagum.-The quotations from the anatomists are complete, but the argument itself is preserved only from pp. 585 to 592.
A break of 132 pages.
9. This chapter is missing; it seems to have treated of the pia mater, or the pia meninx.
10. This chapter, the beginning of which is missing, seems to treat of the "Functions of the Brain in General." The quotations from the anatomists are lost, but the whole of this most important
induction, which extends from pp. 725 to 825, is preserved. It treats of the following distinct heads:
a. The action of the brain on the muscles, pp. 727 to 756. This includes a discussion of the cerebellum, and the spinal marrow.
b. The faculty of sensation of the brain, pp. 757 to 783; which includes a description of the process by which the impressions of the senses are exalted from a lower degree of the brain to a higher, and of the mode in which the will is determined into action.
c. The circulation of the purer essences from the brain through the body by the fibres, and thence back to the brain, pp. 783 to 801. Here is shown the continuation of the fibres into the blood-vessels, and vice versa, and also the division of the blood into its component essences, whence arises the white or spirituous blood, which circulates in the fibres. The function of the glands is likewise explained.
d. Concerning the liquid which is secreted from the least arteries of the brain, and which is circulated by the nerves, and then returns to the outer surface of the brain, pp. 802 to 825.
The subtile liquid here secreted is the nervous juice, which circulates in the nerves in the interstices between its component fibres. This furnishes the nutriment of the periosteum, and finally of the bones and the hair.
11. The tunica arachoidea, pp. 825 to 846.
12. On monstrous and petrified brains, pp. 846 to 874.
13. On the brains of fishes, birds, &c. pp. 847 to 892.
Transaction III.
An Exposition of the Animal Spirit, pi, 893 to 910.
1. The planes, axes, and centres of the brain, pp. 911 to 923.
2. The corpus callosum, pp. 923 to 953.
3. The fornix, etc., pp. 953 to 1008.
4. The septum lucidum, pp. 1008 to 1017.
5. The lateral ventricles, and the communicatory apertures (foramina), pp. 1017 to 1040.
6. The corpora striata, pp. 1041 to 1078.
7. The prolongations (crura) of the medalls oblongata, pp. 1078 to 1103.
8. The choroid plexuses, pp. 1103 to 1142.
9. The testes, nates, and lymphatic duct, pp. 1142 to 1188. The induction contains a description of the third, fourth, and sixth pairs of nerves.
10. The pineal gland, pp. 1185 to 1220.
A break occurs here of 12 pages.
11. The third ventricle and the great valve (valvula magna) of the brain. The beginning of this chapter, including some of the quotations of the anatomists, is wanting. It extends from pp. 1233 to 1263.
12. The fourth ventricle and the calamus scriptorius, pp. 1263 to 1290.
13. The funnel (infundibulum), pp. 1290 to 1325.
14. The pituitary gland, &c., pp. 1326 to 1385. The induction contains a description of the fifth pair of nerves.
15. The receptacula cavernosa, pp. 1388 to 1427.
16. The wonderful net (rete mirabile), pp. 1427 to 1482: showing the difference between the human and the animal brain.
The whole of this treatise on the Brain has been reproduced in Vol. IV of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg. For the sake of uniformity the original quarto pages have been printed in folio, so that the whole work consists of 458 folio pages. The numbers of the original quarto pages, however, have been inscribed on the margin, so as to preserve the necessary relation between the original MS. and its photo-lithographic reproduction.
As nearly all the quotations from the anatomists were crossed out by Swedenborg and transferred by him to Codex 55, the whole of which has been reproduced as Vol. V of the Swedenborg MSS., the editor did not deem it necessary to print all these quotations a second time in Vol. IV; wherefore at the beginning of each chapter, or wherever these quotations were omitted in that volume, he stated clearly the pages of Vol. V, where they might be found. Respecting the place which this treatise occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document. 313, no, 45.
The following papers are bound up in Codex 65 with the above.
1. A fragment on the Infinite and its relation to the Finite, 8 pages which are paged from 669 to 676. This fragment is printed in the Photo-Lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg, Vol. III, pp. 168 to 173.
2. On the muscles in general, 22 pages. This chapter consists almost entirely of quotations from the anatomists, via. Boerhaave,281 Willis285 Vienssens,289 Winslow.283 Swedenborg himself adds only one short paragraph, in which he calls attention to the fact that all muscles have a tendency to contract, and he describes the circumstances under which they develop this tendency; but all this, he says, will be treated in another place. The pages of this chapter are numbered as pp. 1913 to 1934. The chapter itself has the number 8 affixed to it.
3. The way to a knowledge of the soul, pp. 1935 to 1939. This tract was published in London in 1846 under the editorship of Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, in a volume entitled, Emanuelis Swedenborgii Opuscula qudam Argumenti Philosophici, pp. 3 to 5. The same gentleman also translated it into English in the publication entitled. "Posthumous Tracts," pp. 3 to 6.
4. Faith and good works, pp. 1940 to 1950. This tract was also edited by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson in the original language in the Opuscula Phiosophica, pp. 9 to 14, and translated into the English language in the "Posthumous Tracts," pp. 9 to 15.
"Codex 68.--De Cultu et Amore Dei, Part I."
For further particulars, see Codex 51.
"Codex 74.-Anatomica et Physiologica, 4to."
This codex contains 528 pages and consists of the following distinct treatises and papers.
I. A treatise on the Fibres and Nerves, which begins with p. 66 and extends to p. 433. Respecting the missing portion, Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson says, "The beginning of the MS., it is true, is wanting, but from many places in the Codex it is made plain what the nature of its contents was.
To judge from quotations made here and there the whole of it consisted of quotations from the anatomists, nos. 5 to 12 from Willis,288 nos. 12 to 15 from Bartolin,290 nos. 16 from Lancisi,285 no. 17 from Vieussens,281 no. 15 from Ridley,291 nos. 19 to 21 from Malpighi,287 nos. 22 to 43 from Leeuwenhoek,277 and nos. 45 to 51 from Boerhave."281 The following are the subjects treated in the various chapters:
1. Difference between the cortical and medullary substances, nos. 58 to 74.
2 to 5. The disposition of the medullary substance in the cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata: and the spinal marrow, nos. 75 to 117.
6. Fibres of the first, second, and third order, nos. 115 to 124.
7. Nature of the medullary substance in general, nos. 123 to 139.
8. Nature of the fibre, and the least blood-vessels (vascula) in the brain. The former are active, the latter passive; nos. 133 to 167.
9. Least vessels (vascula) of a middle order, i. e. partaking both of the nature of the fibres and of least blood-vessels. They are the lymphatic vessels; nos. 168 to 187.
10. The nerves, their composition from fibres, the nervous juice, nos. 188 to 207.
11. The tunics and ligaments of nerves, fascicles, and fibres, nos. 208 to 227.
12. The conjunctions and plexuses of fibres, fascicles, and nerves in the brain and the body, nos. 228 to 236.
13. Ganglia, nos. 237 to 240.
14. The variety of fibres, fascicles, and nerves, nos. 241 to 248.
15. The simple fibre, nos. 249 to 254.
16. The spiral flux of fibres, with an excursus on the doctrine of degrees in forms, nos. 255 to 273.
17 to 21. The nature of the simple fibre determined, nos. 274 to 297.
22. Origin of medullary or nervous fibres from the simple fibre, and the origin of blood-vessels thence, nos. 288 to 303.
23 and 24. The forms of the animal kingdom, and their succession through the medium of the fibres and blood-vessels, nos. 304 to 316.
25. A definition of the soul and the body, nos. 317 and 318
26. The circulation of the red, the purer, and the purest blood by the blood-vessels and vessels. The circle of life through which the intercourse between the soul and body takes place, nos. 319 to 327.
II. The tunica arachnoidea, in six chapters, nos. 328 to 369.
III. On the diseases of the fibres, nos. 370 to 561. This is the treatise concerning which Swedenborg says in Codex 55 that it should be read as a preface to the treatise on the diseases of the brain contained in that codex.
The subjects treated of are the same as those which are enumerated in Codex 55. Respecting the place which this MS. occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 57.
The further subjects treated of in Codex 74 are as follows:
IV. The Red Blood, pp., 24.
V. The Animal Spirit, pp. 24.
VI. Sensation or the Passion of the Body, pp. 11, not complete.
VII. The origin and propagation of the Soul, pp. 6.
VIII. Action, pp. 30.
For further particulars respecting the contents of nos. IV to VIII, see Document 312, nos. 62-66.
IX. Fragment on the Soul. Pages 3 and 4 are missing, likewise pp. 41 to 72, and the whole of the treatise after p. 50. This tract is further discussed in Document 313, no. 61.
These six tracts were published in London in 1846, under the editorship of Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, in a volume entitled, Emanuelis Swedenborgii Opuscula qudam argumenti philosophici, pp. 15 to 122. An English translation of this volume, prepared likewise by Dr. Wilkinson, appeared in 1847 under the title, "Posthumous Tracts," in which the above six tracts occupy pp. 17 to 149.
"Codex 79.--Clavis Hieroglyphica."
Concerning the time of the composition of this interesting treatise, and the place which it occupies in the Regnum Animale, and also for further particulars, see Document 313, nos. 59 and 60.
"Codex 80.--See Codex 8."
One of the codices containing the original draught of the Arcana Coelestia. It contains Genesis, chapter xxii.
"Codex 81.--De Magnete."
The full title of this MS. is De Magnete et ejus qualitatibus (The magnet and its dualities). On the title page it bears the inscription, London, 1722; from which it appears that Swedenborg had intended it for publication in that year.
This work is a digest of all that had been written up to the author's time on the subject of the magnet, and it consists mostly of extracts from the works of Gilbert, Henkel, Rssler, Hoffman, Wolf, Volkman, Valentius, and Agricola.
In chapter VIII, which treats of the quality of the magnetic needle, and in chapter XX, which discusses electricity, Swedenborg adds the results of his own observations and experiments; in the former chapter his additions amount to four, and in the latter to six pages.
The book, as far as prepared for the press, closes with 34 pages of tables exhibiting the declination of the magnetic needle, which are taken from the work of Bruchmann. The text with these tables fills 299 pages, 4to.
In the remaining parts of the Codex are interesting fragments of Swedenborg's induction, which he made on the basis of the preceding experiments. The headings of this induction are as follows:
1. The object of the present treatise, as stated in the preface.
2. The reason why the needle has the power of deviating, and of rendering the observation uncertain to the amount of one degree.
3. How the trigonometrical calculation is to be carried
4. How the conception may be aided by two eccentric circles.
Afterwards he says in what is intended for the preface: AThis is the golden apple which will be yielded to the victor; he who is able to solve this problem will carry off the prize. Statement of the reason why its solution is so difficult, and why it is so easy to go wrong."
Eleven paragraphs on the six succeeding pages are then devoted to discussion of the problem, all of which, however, are crossed out. At the end the author declares, "I am willing to travel over the whole globe, and explore these declinations, if God grant me life for it" and he then continues: "But let us hasten to the calculation, and compare the results of calculation with those which are obtained by observation." Now follow ten pages of calculation.
There is no doubt that the contents of this Codex have been more or less worked up and embodied by Swedenborg in Vol. I of his Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, published in Leipzig in 1734, which is titled Principia Rerum Naturalium, sive novorum tentaminum phnomena mundi elementaris philosophice explicandi (The first principles of natural things, or of new attempts to explain the phenomena of the elementary world in a philosophical manner).
"Codices 82 to 85.--De Sulphure, de Sale Commnni, de Secretione Argenti et Cupri, de Vitriolo."
These Codices were intended to be parts of a large metallurgical work, of which Swedenborg published a prospectus in 1722 (see Document 198), but which was never printed. Part V of that work was to treat of the methods of separating gold and silver from lead, copper, and other metals, Part XIII of the methods of obtaining Vitriol, and part XVI of the methods of obtaining common Salt.
The author was engaged in this metallurgical work in 1724, as appears from the following extract from Document 100: "About each of the following metals, viz., gold, silver, and iron, I shall probably have more to say than about copper;" and in Document 102, which was written on May 26, 1724, we read: "By brother Anton Swab I send collections on sulphur [Codex 82], vitriol [Codex 85], alum, common salt [Codex 83], saltpetre, and the acids; but these collections are not yet set up with care, and as I desire to keep them for myself alone, I should like to have them returned with my former collections about copper not later than July."
Codex 82, which is entitled "De Sulphure et Pyrite (On sulphur and pyrites), fills 329 pages, 4to. It consists of 24 chapters, which contain partly extracts from the works of Agricola and Rssler, and partly the results of Swedenborg's own observations and experiments.
Codex 83 is entitled De Sale Communi, h. e. de sale fossili vel gemmeo, marino, et fontano (The common salt, i. e. rock-salt, sea-salt, and salt obtained from saline springs); it contains 343 pages, 4to. It consists of 43 chapters wherein are minutely described the various processes by which salt is obtained in the different countries of Europe. Chapter XLVII, which fills 50 pages, contains the observations and results of the various authors, and especially of Agricola, in respect to the chemistry of common salt."
Codex 84 is entitled De Secretione Argenti et Cupri, qu "Seger-Arbete" vocatur (The secretion of silver and copper, which is called Arefining"), and contains 363 pages, 4to. As pages 295 to 363 are crossed out, it appears that their contents were introduced by the author into his work, published n 1734, entitled Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, Vols. II and III of which treat of the metallurgy of iron and copper.
Codex 85 is entitled De Vitriolo, deque modis vitriolum elixandi, &c. (Concerning vitriol, and the modes of extracting it, &c.). It consists of 446 pages, 4to.
"Codex 86.-Geometrica et Algebraica."
This Codex consists of 403 pages, quarto, part of which, however, is blank. It treats of the following subjects:
I. A treatise on Algebra, pp. 3 to 22.
II. The principles of the Differential Calculus, pp. 24 to 47.
III. Examples of the Integral Calculus, pp. 49 to 52.
IV. A treatise on Analytical Geometry, pp. 61 to 145. This treatise is almost entirely crossed out.
V. Rules in Mechanics, pp. 146 to 157.
VI. Geometrical and algebraical rules in Physics, pp. 158 to 164.
VII. From p 163 to p. 355, at an interval usually of ten pages, an interesting analysis of some historical work on Sweden is contained. The analysis sometimes occupies only two or three lines, at another time it covers a half, or a whole column of the page. The blank part of these pages is mostly filled up by portions of the following extracts:
VIII. Excerpts from Roumette on the deluge and paradise, pp. 165 to 171.
IX. Excerpts from Gregory's treatise on Astronomy, pp. 176 to 196.
X. A paper on the Calculus Exponentialis, pp. 191 to 205; this paper is partly crossed out.
XI. Experiments from Musschenbroek, pp. 205 to 231.
XII. Additional extracts from Gregory's Astronomy, pp. 232 to 257.
XIII. Opinions of the philosophers, Kepler, Descartes, and Leibnitz, extracted from Gregory, p. 297.
XIV. The anatomy of the brain and the nerves from Willis,289 pp. 261 to 275.
XV. Extract from Polhem, p. 277.
XVI. Extracts from the "Mmoires de l'Acadmie des Sciences" for the year 1733, pp. 275, 279.
XVII. Some vocabularies or lists of works, p. 283; these are crossed out.
XVIII. Plan of a work on Mathematics, pp. 395 to 398.
XIX. A Paper on Motion, p. 399.
184 pages of this Codex have been photo-lithographed under the head of Algebraica et Geometrica in Vol. II of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg, where they occupy the first hundred pages; the quarto pages for the sake of uniformity having been changed into folio pages.
The following sections of the codex have been reproduced in this manner, nos. I to VI, and nos. X, XVIII, and XIX.
"Codex 87.BPrincipia Rerum Naturalium."
The full title of this Codex, which fills 560 pages, quarto, is Principia Rerum Naturalium ab experimentis et geometria sive ex posteriori et priori educta (First principles of natural things deduced from experience and geometry, or a posteriori and a priori). Its motto is: Sit felix faustumque! (May it be prosperous and successful). For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 26.
This Codex comprises 174 chapters, a photo-lithographic re-production of which fills pp. 101 to 444 in Vol. II of the Swedenborg MSS. The original quarto pages of this MS. also have been changed into folio pages.
"Codex 88.--Varia Philosophica, Anatomica, et Itineraria."
This Codex is Swedenborg's Common Place Book for 1724 to 1740. It consisted originally of 760 pages, 4to, of which 30 pages are lost. Its contents are manifold, and very much scattered through the volume. The following are the subjects which are discussed in it:
I. The motion of the elements in general, in 13 paragraphs, pp. 3 to 7. It constitutes Section III, in Vol. III of the Photo-lithographed MSS. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 39.
II. Journal of Travel From May 10, 1733, to March 4, 1734, pp. 8 to 39, pp. 46 to 49, pp. 55 to 89, pp. 107 to 109, and pp. 214 and 215. It constitutes Document 205 in the present collection. For further particulars, see footnote to p. 6.
III. General statement respecting Swedenborg's travels from 1710 to 1734. This is written in the Swedish language on pp. 498, 503, and 504. It constitutes Document 204 in the present collection. Further particulars respecting it may be found in a footnote on p. 3.
IV. Journal of Travels from 1736 to 1739. It is written in the Swedish language and extends from pp. 504 to 542. It constitutes Document 206 in the present; collection; where further particulars respecting its history may be found on p. 130, and also in a footnote on p. 75.
V. First draughts of various matters belonging to the larger Principia, printed in 1734, pp. 40, 47, 49, 50 to 55, 57, 58, 86, and 87. These first draughts are printed as Section IV in Vol. III of the Swedenborg MSS., pp. 83 to 90. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 40.
VI. A short treatise on the Mechanism of the Soul and the Body, extending from pp. 116 to 131. It constitutes Section V in the above-named volume. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 41.
VII. A comparison of the ontology and cosmology of Christopher Wolf with Swedenborg's Principia Rerum Naturalium; p. 41 and pp. 159 to 206. It is photo-lithographed as Section VI in the above-named volume. This tract is more thoroughly discussed in Document 313, no. 48.
VIII. Miscellaneous philosophical and anatomical deductions, with a paragraph on faith in Christ; pp. 207 to 213. These constitute Section VII in the above-named volume. The writing on the covers of the Codex is given by photo-lithography on p. 141, in the same Section.
IX. The results of Swedenborg's anatomical observations (pp. 152 to 157), which are printed as Section VIII in the above-named volume, pp. 142 to 145.
X. An abstract of Vol. I of the Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, i. e. of the printed Principia, embracing the part on cosmology, pp. 237 to 273. It is photo-lithographed "Section IX in the above-named volume, pp. 146 to 167.
XI. Excerpts from Schurigius276 On the generative organs, consisting of 41 pages.
XII. Excerpts from Christopher Wolf, 93 pages, to which Swedenborg refers in Document 205, p. 78.
XIII. Excerpts from various anatomists, especially Winslom,263 on the brain, 325 pages.
XIV. Index to the entire volume, which in the original Codex extended from pp. 712 to 739, (see Document 304, B, no. 9). Of this only three pages remain.
XIV. A description of several of Swedenborg's dreams during the years 1736, 1737, 1735, 1739, and 1740," which in the original volume extended from pp. 730 to 733, and again from pp. 741 to 745." See Document 304, B, no. 9. Concerning these dream; we read in a copy of the catalogue prepared by Swedenborg's heirs which was printed in 1801, that "these leaves were removed from the volume, and are now in the safe-keeping of the family."
"Codices 89 and 90.--Biblia Latina Sebsstiani Schmidii in 4to."
These codices consist of fragments of the Old and New Testaments, translated into Latin by Sebastian Schmidus, professor of theology in the university of Strassburg, and published by him in 1696. On the many passages in Genesis, Exodus, and the prophets, and Exodus only a small portion remains; and in the prophets many portions of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are missing but Daniel, Hoseah, Joel, and Amos are complete besides, some of the marginal notes have been mutilated, a portion of them having been cut off with a pair of scissors.--Concerning the nature of these marginal notes, see Document 313, nos. 85, 88, and 89.
The whole of this Bible with Swedenborg's MS. notes has been photo-lithographed; and those portions which are missing, were supplied from another copy of this Bible, which was kindly lent for this purpose from the Royal Library in Stockholm. The two books of Samuel, however, were left out by the printer by mistake.
"Codex 95."
Concerning this codex we read in the Official Catalogue (Document 307) simply that it was Ataken by Nordenskjöld," but Björnstierna in Document 308 describes it as "A Collection of Memorabilia," 8vo.
Such a "Collection of Memorabilia," 8vo, was taken by Wadström to England in MSS, and, after it had remained for some time in the possession of Mr. D. R. M'Nab, was returned to the Academy of Sciences in 1842. This Little Codex is described in Document 304, thus: "A little volume in 8vo, bound in calf, filled with memorabilia, of which each is under its own head; it contains 134 pages.
That the little volume which was returned to the Academy of Sciences in 1842 was Codex 95, is fully proved by a reference to Björnstierna's Catalogue. As the whereabouts of this catalogue, however, were not known in 1842, and as the identity of the returned MS. with Codex 95 could not then be proved, it was entered in the "Official Catalogue" as Codex 111; so that Codices 95 and 111 are identical.
Before this little volume was returned to Sweden, by the permission of the Academy of Sciences, it was printed by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1843 under the title Eman. Swedenborgii Diarii Spiritualis Pars IV, sive Diarium Minus. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 97.
"Codex 99.-Beskrifning fwer Swenska Masungnar" (Description of Swedish iron Furnaces).
Concerning this MS., the original of which is preserved in the College of Mines, see Document 145, Vol. I, pp. 404, 405; and also Document 313, no. 20.
"Codex 106.--Index Rerum in Apocalypsi Revelata."
For further particulars respecting this Index, see Codex 7, no. 1; and also Document 313, no. 130.
"Codices 107 to 109.--Apocalypsis Explicata.
These Codices contain the MS. copy of that work as far as Swedenborg had written it out for the press; it fills 1992 pages, 4to.
In 1753 this work was conveyed to England by C. F. Nordenskjöld, and was printed from 1785 to 1789 by Mr. R. Hindmarsh, in a large 4to edition. The expenses of this edition were defrayed mostly by Mr. Peckitt,299 who also became the owner of the MS. copy, and by whose son it was presented to the Swedenborg Society. In 1843 this copy was restored by that Society to the Academy of Sciences, as its rightful owner; in 1859 it was again borrowed from the Academy by Dr. Im. Tafel, who commenced its republication a short time before his death, but did not finish it.
In 1870 the whole of this work was photo-lithographed in two folio volumes, consisting of 1163 pages; these two volumes constitute Vol. IX and X of the photo-lithographed edition of Swedenborg's MSS.
The Rev. E. Madely states in the Appendix to Hindmarsh's "History of the Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church," edition of the Apocalypsis Explicata, was not Swedenborg's, but a copy made by Mr. Nordenskjöld." This however, is a mistake; for Mr. Hindmarsh, as can be clearly proved, had the original codices 107 to 109 in his possession.
Respecting the position which the "Apocalypse Explained" occupies among Swedenborg's writings, see Document 313, no. 106.
"Codex 110.--Index to the Spiritual Diary."
This Codex is identical with Codex 95, which see for further particulars respecting it may be found.
"Codex 111.--Diarium Spirituale, i. e. Diarium Minus."
This Codex is identical with Codex 95; where further particulars respecting it may be found.
"Codex 112.--Complete Index to the Arcana Coelestial."
"Codex 113.--Index to the Earlier Volumes of the Arcana Coelestia, Vol. II."
The fate of these two Codices was unknown for a long time; the history of their discovery is related in Document 309, L.
The following description of Codex 112 is given in Document 304, Theological Writings, no. 7: "Vol. VI is also an extensive Index probably to the author's own collections, or to one of his works; but it was either re-written by him, or used for some particular purpose, since line after line is crossed out throughout the whole volume."
Codex 113 is Vol. II of an Index to the earlier volumes of the Arcana Coelestia. Vol. I is still missing.
The contents of Codices 112 and 113, as well as of the volume which is still missing, were copied under the superintendence of A. Nordenskjöld, and the copy was conveyed to England in 1783 by his brother C. F. Nordenskjöld. This copy seems to have passed into the hands of J. A. Tulk, Esq. 228 by purchase; for it was published by him in 1815 under the following title, Index Verborum, Nominum, et Rerum in Arcanis Coelestibus.
DOCUMENT 311.
LIST OF SWEDENBORG'S SCIENTIFIC PAPERS PRESERVED IN THE CATHEDRAL-LIBRARY OF Linköping.
These papers, which were written between 1716 and 1781, are preserved in the cathedral-library of Linköping among the papers of the late Archbishop Ericus Benzelius.6 The volume containing them is No. 40 of the Benzelius Collection, and bears the following title, "Collectanea Physico-Mathematica, with several papers concerning the Natural History of Sweden, containing documents read before the Literary Society of Upsal."
Most of these papers, twenty-six in all, have been photo-lithographed, and constitute Vol. I of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS. They are as follows:
1. A plan for the establishment of a literary society, under twelve heads, p. 1.*
* The pages refer to the photo-lithographed volume.
2. A plan for the institution (1) of a mechanical laboratory, (a) of an astronomical observatory, (3) of a mathematical society, p. 2. See Documents 55 and 59.
3. The importance of instituting an Astronomical Observatory in Sweden; with a plan by which this may be carried out; pp. 3 to 6.
This plan was communicated by Swedenborg to the Royal Secretary Cederholm, as appears from Document 73. This paper is thoroughly discussed in Document 313, no. 9.
4. A paper on the means of promoting the economical welfare of a country, pp. 7 to 18.
This paper is in Swedenborg's handwriting, and is on that account ascribed to him in the Index to the MS. volume in which it is contained. From the preface to this paper, however, which is signed Ch. P. [Christopher Polhem], it appears that the ideas in it, were communicated to Polhem first by a citizen of Carlscrona.
These ideas he afterwards wrote out in full, and had them copied so as to bring them before the Literary Society at Upsal. Swedenborg, who at that time was associated with Polhem, acted in this particular as his amanuensis.
5. Notes on muscles, snails, &c., in limestone and slate p. 19. The localities in Sweden are described where such petrifactions occur.
6. Description of a syphon machine, for throwing water, p. 20.
Also the description of a machine for flying, which the author calls a machina Ddalea or volatilis.
A description of this machine was likewise introduced by Swedenborg into No. 4 of his Ddalus Hyperboreus, pp. 80 to 83. Polhem's criticism on it is contained in Document 65, Vol. I., p. 269 et seq.
7. De causis rerum (On the causes of things), pp. 25 to 27. This paper treats, (1) of the equilibrium of the planets, (2) "of the most universal matter, (3) of the origin of matter, and (4) of rain, and the ascent and descent of water in the atmosphere, based on an interesting series of experiments. This paper is more thoroughly discussed in Document 313, no. 10.
8. Fragment of a new theory concerning the End of the Earth, pp. 28 to 65.
This dissertation is complete to chapter 8; the end of this chapter, however, together with the beginning of Chapter 9, is wanting. The break occurs in the photo-lithographed copy on pages 47 and 48. Chapters 10, 11, and 12 again are complete, but the whole dissertation is brought abruptly to a close in chapter 13, of which only the beginning is preserved. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 11.
9. On the mode of assisting commerce and manufactures, pp. 68 to 73.
For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 12.
10. A memorial concerning the establishment of salt-boileries in Sweden, pp. 74 and 75. A portion of the first page is torn off.
With reference to the interest that Swedenborg took in this subject, see Documents 69, 73, 75, and 77; see also Document 313, no. 13.
11. The nature of fire and of colours, pp. 80 to 85.
A most important paper, which together with no. 7, contains Swedenborg's first speculations the nature of fire, air, water, and the arrangement of the particles in the various elements. This paper is thoroughly discussed in Document 313, no. 14.
12. A new method for propelling vessels up stream, with three illustrations, pp. 86 to 88.
13. A traction machine (en dragmachine); an illustration without text, p. 90.
14. Memorandum of several experiments, p. 92.
15. On various kinds of soils and earths in Westergyllen; one of which is used for dyeing linen and garments black; p. 94.
16. A memorial on improvements that ought to be made in Carlscrona, pp. 127 to 129. Paragraphs 13 and 14 only are in Swedenborg's hand-writing; but the whole was probably composed by him.
17. Points to be submitted to the King, p. 206.
18. Calculation of the power exerted by a windlass (donkraft) of a single and double power, p. 96; drawing of a windlass with double power, p. 98.
19. Stereometric proportions, with some new stereometric rules.
20. Description of a crane, the diagrams of which are lost, pp. 102 to 104.
21. Minutes of the Literary Society of Upsal for June 20, 1711, and July, 1711.
These minutes so far as they concern Swedenborg have been introduced into Document 41, Vol. I, p. 213.
22. New Directions for discovering metallic veins, or some hints hitherto unknown for the discovery of mineral veins and treasures long hidden in the earth, pp. 106 to 119. This paper first communicated by Swedenborg to the College of Mines, as may be seen from Document 86, Vol. I, p. 314.
23. Concerning the rise and fall of lake Wenner, and how far this is due to the flow of water into it, and the carrying off of water by streams, pp. 120 to 126.
Extracts from this MS. were published in the Acta Literaria Sueci for 1720, p. 111 et seq. See also Document 313, no. 25.
24. Methodus Nova inveniendi Longitudines Locorum terra marique ope Lun (New Method of finding the Longitude of places on land and at sea by means of the moon).
This MS. is identical with the little treatise printed under the same title in Amsterdam, in 1721; see Document 313, nos. 17 and 30.
25. Anatomy of our most subtle nature, showing that our moving and living force consists of tremulations; chapters I to VI, and chapter XIII, pp. 132 to 180.
A copy of this paper the author communicated to the College of Health (Sundhets Collegium) on November 1, 1719 (see Document 85, Vol. I, p. 310), and another copy h, began to send in portions to Ericus Benzelius for the Literary Society in January, 1720 (see Document 88, Vol. I, 15, 317).
The reason of the lapsus between Chapters VI and XIII is stated by the author in Document 89. This is a most important paper, especially as it shows that Swedenborg so early as 1719 instituted most thorough investigations into the anatomy of the human body, and particularly into that of the human brain and of the nerves; wherefore this may be justly regarded as the precursor of his later treatises, the OEconomia Regni Animalis, and the Regnum Animale.
Besides, in it the author for the first time declares in a distinct manner the doctrine of discrete degrees. For further particulars see Document 313, no. 21.
26. Twelve chapters of Swedenborg's Miscellanea Observata, published by him in four parts during 1722.
These chapters he sent during the months of November and December, 1721, by letter to Ericus Benzelius, for the use of the Literary Society at Upsal. Another chapter, which treats of a new method of heating apartments, was published by Benzelius in Acta Literaria Sueci for 1722, pp. 282 to 285. All these papers are photo-lithographed from pp. 182 to 200. For further particulars, see Document 313, no. 29.
27. Memorial to the King, dated July 14, 1722, concerning an improved process in the working of copper; pp. 201 and 202.
This memorial constitutes Document 249 in the present collection.
28. A Latin ode to King Frederic at Medevi, about the same time addressed, p. 203.
29. A friendly reply to an objection of Prof. Quensel292 to Swedenborg's method of finding the longitude; written during the absence of the author by one of his friends, p. 203. This answer was originally printed in the Acta Literaria Sueci, for 1722, p. 315. et. seq.
30. An experiment on the echo, pp. 205 et seq.
In the same MS. volume are further contained the originals of Documents 42 and 52, and, likewise forty-four letters addressed by Swedenborg to Ericus Benzelius between September, 1714, and August, 1724. All these letters are contained in Section III of the present collection.
DOCUMENT 312.
AN ANALYSIS OF A COLLECTION OF SWEDENBORG'S LETTERS
Among the MSS. of Swedenborg which his heirs committed in 1772 to the care of the Academy of Sciences, was a large collection of letters, a list of which was embodied in the catalogue (Document 304) by which this deposit was accompanied. Some of these letters, which had reference to Swedenborg's active work in the Swedish Diet, were afterwards bound up in Codex 56, which is entitled, Riksdagsskrifter; and others, which concerned his "Method of finding the Longitude," were bound up in no. 67; but all the other letters disappeared mysteriously from the Academy of Sciences.
Fortunately, however, an Academician, Bengt Bergius, made it one of objects of his life to collect letters addressed to, and written by, illustrious Swedes. These letters he borrowed, copied out beautifully, and thus inserted in his collection of letters, which at the time of his death amounted to twenty thick quarto volumes (see Note 46). Bergius, as it seems, got hold of the collection of Swedenborg's letters which was in the possession of the Academy of Sciences, and those that appeared to him most important he copied either wholly or in part, and in this wise preserved them. Besides, some of the members of the Exegetic Philanthropic Society likewise copied some of these letters, which they published in 1787 in the "Samlingar fr Philantroper;" while other letters through their instrumentality were published in 1784 in the Appendix to the second edition of the "Intercourse between the Soul and the Body," and still more in the "New Jerusalem Magazine" for 1790.
We shall now examine seriatim the list of letters contained in Document 304, and specify those that have been preserved through one of the above agencies.
"No. 1. Some papers that arrived from London in the month of September, which are probably the last written by Assessor Swedenborg's own hand."
Document 302 was probably one of these papers.
"No. 2. First draughts and memorials on political subjects." These have been bound upt and constitute the greater part of Codex 56, entitled Riksdagsskrifter. They are contained in Section VI of the present work.
"No. 3. Correspondence and controversial writings with Nordencrantz, the late Councillor of Commerce, and president von lreich." Some of these letters have been preserved in Codex 56; but by far the greater part Bergius copied, and embodied in his collection. All these letters are contained in Section VI of the work.
"No. 4, Letters from Bishop Doctor Jesper Swedenborg." Some of the Bishop's letters to his sons Emanuel and Jesper have been preserved through the instrumentality of Bergius. They constitute Documents 113, 115, and 131.
"Nos. 5 to 9. Letters from Lewis and John Hart, printers, London; from P. Roger, Doctor of Divinity, and Madame Johanna Corleva; from Hekel, bookseller, Dresden, and from Jrgen Schneider, Hamburg."
These letters have entirely disappeared.
"No. 10. Letters from Joachim Wretman174 in Amsterdam." Seven of these letters were bought by the editor of these Documents during his stay in Sweden in 1770, and deposited by him in the Archives of the Swedenborg Society. They constitute Documents 210 to 214, 219, and 235 of the present collection
"Nos. 11 and 12. Letters from Margareta Ahlstrm in London, and Zacharias Strmberg in Amsterdam."
These letters have disappeared.
"No. 13. Some of Swedenborg's own letters and answers to letters in first draughts."
The first draughts of some of Swedenborg's letters to Dr. Beyer, which were bound up in Codex 52, were lately restored to the Academy.
Such first draughts exist of letters 13 and 14 written to Dr. Beyer (Document 245, H and L). Other first draughts of letters, copies of which have been preserved, are Documents 125, 225, 226, 225, 239. The first of these was copied by Bergius, the rest were copied by the Nordenskjölds.
"No. 14. Various letters from abroad, and among them from the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, and from Christopher Wolf."
Among these letters are probably those of Henkel and Forskl, which were copied by Bergius, and which constitute Documents 117 and 119 in the present collection. The letters from St. Petersburg and Christopher Wolf have not been preserved.
"No. 15. Letters from his relations and friends, especially from his brothers-in-lam, Archbishop Dr. Ericus Benzelius, and Dean J. Unge."
Most, if not all, of these letters have been preserved through the agency of Bergius. From Ericus Benzelius6 we have Documents 98, 103, and 105; from Dean J. Unge5 Documents 107, 111, 114, 116, 120, and 121; from Swedenborg's brother Jesper52 Document 104; from his brother-in-law Lars Benzelstjerna8 Documents 124 and 125; from his cousin Peter Swedberg Document 7, and from his cousin Peter Schönström47 Document 8.
"No. 16. A letter from Baron L. von Hatzel, Chevalier Grand Croix de l'ordre de St. George, together with a letter from His Excellency, Senator Count Gustav Bonde, dated August 7, 1760, with Assessor Swedenborg's answer to the last letter."
All these interesting letters have been preserved through the instrumentality of Bergins. They constitute Documents 215, 216, and 217.
"Nos. 17 and 18. Letters from Herman Obereit, John Caspar Lavater, and Christian Tuxen." Of these letters those written by Lavater have been preserved through the agency of the Nordenskjölds or Wadström. They are Documents 236 and 242.
"No. 19. Letters of Abbot F. C. tinger, from the years1765, l766, 1767, and 1768, with three answers to these letters in first draughts."
Swedenborg's letters to tinger were published by that gentleman himself. They constitute Documents 229, 232, and 238.
Of the four letters that tinger addressed to Swedenborg two have likewise been published by that gentleman; they are Documents 231 and 233.
"No. 20. Four letters from various persons."
Among these were probably those addressed to Swedenborg by the Rev. Thomas Hartley, Documents 1 and 3; and by Doctor Beyer, Document 223, the last of which were copied by Bergius
"No. 21. First draughts of several letters.
Among these was probably Swedenborg's letter to the King of Sweden, which was copied by Bergius, Document 246, X; and the letters he addressed to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and to his Minister Venntor, Documents 246 to 248.
"No. 22. Letters from Polhem, lingenstjerna,293 Celsius, N. Schenmark, the Universities of Upsal and bo, and several bishops." Some of Polhem's letters to Swedenborg found their way into the cathedral-library of Linköping, from which they have been inserted into the present collection; they constitute Documents 51, 53, 65, 66, 71. The letter from N. Schenmark and Swedenborg's answer to the same are bound up in Codex 67. The rest of the letters have not been preserved.
"No. 23. Decrees, orders with several other papers, concerning the life of Assessor Swedenborg."
Among these decrees was that by which the King of Sweden accepted Swedenborg's resignation; this constitutes Document 167. Among the papers, however, which concerned the life of Assessor Swedenborg was no doubt the first draught of his reply to the Rev. T. Hartley which contains his autobiography, Document 2.
If now we take a review of the history of Swedenborg's correspondence, we have great reason to congratulate ourselves that so many of these letters have reached our time; we hope also that the letters which have disappeared from the Academy of Sciences have not been destroyed, and that they will emerge some time from their hiding-places.
DOCUMENT 313.
SWEDENBORG'S PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER.
1709. (1.) L. Anni Senec et Pub. Syri Mimi, forsan et aliorum Select Sententi cum annotationibus Erasmi et Grca versione Jos. Scaligeri, quas cum consensu Ampl. Fac. Philos. Notis illustratas publico examini modeste submittit Emanuel Swedberg (Select Sentences of L. Ann Seneca and Pub. Syrus Mimus, perhaps also of others, with the annotations of Erasmus and the Greek version of Jos. Scaliger, which, with the consent of the philosophical faculty, and furnished with notes, are submitted with diffidence to public examination by Emanuel Swedenborg). Upsal, Werner; 62 pages, 8vo.
This thesis was publicly read by Swedenborg on June 1, 1709, in the large university hall of Upsal, Magister Fabian Trner, the Royal professor of philosophy, occupying the chair. The published thesis is dedicated to his father, Bishop Swedberg. In this dedication he gives expression to the feelings of gratitude and admiration with which his father had inspired him, and points to the "Sentences" he has "selected," as principles that have been followed by his first-fruits of Swedenborg's labours. "The preface, which he addressed to the reader, gives evidence of a, well-spent youth, and of independent judgment. But the commentary itself displays a wealth of solid knowledge, and bears witness to his thorough acquaintance with history, and the Roman and Greek classics, from which, as well as from the Sacred Scripture, he quotes a great number of apposite parallel passages.
The principal feature and merit of this little work consists in the skilful selection and harmonious working up of appropriate materials, both in respect to the language and thoughts, of the authors of whom he treats; and the whole of it shows that it is the product of a serious mind directed towards the contemplation of eternal things, and resting on A pure moral foundation." In proof of this Dr. Im. Tafel quotes the sentiments of the author on filial love and friendship, and the horror which he shows of duplicity and hypocrisy.
This little treatise was reprinted by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1841, and to it he added some recently discovered fragments of other sentences ascribed to Pub. Syrus Mimus.
1709. (2.) Jesperi Swedbergii, Doct. Et Episcopi Scarensis, Parentis Optimi, Canticum Suecicum AUngdom's Regel och Alderdoms Spegel," ex Ecclesiast: c. XII. Latino Carmine exhibitum ab Emanuele Swedbergio, filio (The Swedish poem, "The Rule of Youth and the Mirror of Old Age," from Ecclesiastes xii, by Dr. Jesper Swedberg, Bishop of Scara, the best of fathers, translated into Latin verse by his son, Emanuel Swedberg). Scara Kjelberg.
The Latin poem, it seems, was published separately, and also in conjunction with the Swedish original of the father, which bears the following title: Ungdoms Regel och lderdoms Spegel af Salomos predikare B. 12 Cap. Bishop Swedberg's consists of a poetical paraphrase of the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, followed by two sermons explanatory of that chapter, which he delivered on leaving Upsal in 1703. Dr. Kahl307 says of Swedenborg's Latin poem that "Ovid need not have been ashamed of it." It was written about the middle of 1709; for the Bishop dates the preface of his book "Brunsbo, July 18, 1709." That Swedenborg at that time was staying with his father appears from Document 36.
This Latin poem was reprinted by Dr. Im. Tafel in his "Documents concerning Swedenborg," Col. IV, pp. 68 to 73.
1710. (3.) Ad Sophiam Elisabeth Brenneriam,294 unicam tatis nostr Camenam, cum carmina sua de novo caneret (To Sophia Elisabeth Brenner, the only muse, of our age, when she edited her poems a second time). Two pages, quarto.
This poem is signed Emanuel Swedberg, and is dated London, October, 1710. It was published in the appendix to the second edition of Sophia Brenner's poems, which were issued in quarto, in 1713.
Swedenborg enclosed his tribute to the Swedish Sappho in a letter to Ericus Benzelius (see Document 39, Vol. I, p. 208). It was included in the second and third editions of Swedenborg's Ludus Heliconius, &c.
1715. (4.) Camena Borea cum Heroum et Heroidum factis ludens: sive Fabell Ovidianis similes cum variis nominibus script ab Eman. Swedberg (The Northern Muse sporting with the deeds of heroes and heroines: or Fables similar to those of Ovid, under various names. By Emanuel Swedberg). Greifswalde, 1715; 112 pages, 16mo.
Swedenborg himself describes the object of this little work thus: "I have now in the press some fables like those of Ovid, under which the deeds and other affairs of certain kings and great men are concealed" (see Document 47). The edition of this work, which intended for Sweden, seems to have been marked on the title-page simply with the initials E. S., so that it was classed at first among the anonymous writings. In the Acta Liberaria Sueci for 1724 (p. 585) it is stated for the first time that by E. S. on its title-page is to be understood Emanuel Swedenborg. This little volume is dedicated to Count Gustav Cronhjelm (see Note 63).
A second edition was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1545; the first edition having become so rare that for thirty-four years he was unable to obtain a copy of it. The copy from which his edition was printed, he borrowed from Prof. Barthold of Greifswalde.
1716. (5.) Ludus Heliconius sive Carmina Miscellanea, qu variis in locis cecinit Eman. Swedberg (The Heliconian Sport, or Miscellaneous Poems written in various places by Emanuel Swedberg). Scara, 1716; 16 pages, 4to.
These poems, although printed in 1716, were for the most part written during Swedenborg's travels. They are characterized by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson,230* thus: "These poems display fancy, but a controlled imagination. If we may convey to the English reader such a notion of Latin verses, they remind one of the Pope school, in which there is generally some theme or moral governing the flights of the muse. Under various forms, they hymn the praises of patriotism, love, friendship, and filial regard, and they love mythological clothing. The most important of these poems is the first, which is entitled: "A festive ode in celebration of the victory gained by Count Magnus Stenbock295 over the Danes near Helaingborg in March, 1710.
"This poem," says Dr. Wilkinson, "has been spiritedly paraphrased in our own days by Francis Barham, who considers it by far the finest in the collection," and "to give the reader some idea of the volume, as well as to adorn his pages," Dr. Wilkinson inserted Barham's version in his biography of Swedenborg (pp. 10 and 11). This poem, together with one entitled AExtempore Sport addressed to a friend, Oxford, 1712, Swedenborg seems to have composed in England in that year; for in August, 1712, he wrote to Ericus Benzelius, "As my speculations made me for a time not so sociable as is serviceable and useful for me, and as my spirits are somewhat exhausted, I have taken refuge for a short time in the study of poetry, that I might be somewhat recreated by it" (Document 44, Vol. I, p, 222). Another poem which is addressed "To a Celebrated Gentleman [John Palmqvist, see Note 61] upon the arrival of his wife, who had lately presented him with a daughter, written at Utrecht in Holland, in 1713. The rest, among which is "A Fable of the Love of Perilla and Nereus," and a poem on the "Death of the Dowager Queen Hedwig Eleonora," seem have to been written between 1713 and 1716.
* "Emanuel Swedenborg: a Biography," London, 1849, p. 9.
A second edition of this little volume was printed by Carl Deln, in Stockholm in 1826. He enriched his edition by a "Carmen epistolare ad Virum Celessimum"* (An epistolary poem addressed to a distinguished gentleman), p. 20, &c.
* This "vir cesissimus" was no doubt Count Gustav Cronhjelm, to whom Swedenborg dedicated his little work entitled "Camena Borea," (No. 4;) for in this poem also Swedenborg calls upon him to receive kindly his "Borea Camena," and to recommend it to Apollo.
A third edition was issued by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1841. He embodied in his edition the poems described under nos. 3, 6, and 34.
1716. (6.) CANTUS SAPPRICUS in Charissimi Parentis Doct. Jesperi Swedbergii, Episcopi Scarensis reverendissimi Diem Natalem. Die XXVIII Augusti, Ann: 1716. tatis 63, sive Anni Climacterici magni (a Sapphic Poem in celebration of August 28, 1718, the birthday of my dearest father, Doctor Jesper Swedberg, the Right Reverend Bishop of Scara; when he was sixty-three years old, which is "the great climacteric year"), Scara, 1716.
This poem, which consists of ten verses, was inserted by Dr. Im. Tafel in the third edition of the Ludus Heliconius, &c., p. 31 et. seq.
1716 and 1717. (7). DDALUS HYPERBOREUS, eller ndgra Nya Mathematiska och Physicaliska Frsk och Anmerkningar, som Welborne Herr Assessor Plheimer och andre Sinrike i Swerige hafwa giordt och nu tid efter annan til almen nytto lemna (Ddalus Hyperboreus, or some New Mathematical and Physical Experiments and Observations, made by the well-born Assessor Polhem, and other ingenious men in Sweden, and which will be made public from time to time for the general benefit). Upsal, 1716-1718, six numbers, 154 pages, 4to.
The dedication to King Charles XII and the preface, which is dated Upsal, October 23, 1715, were written by Swedenborg. His own contributions to the various numbers are as follows:
No. I.
1. A hoisting machine for one, where the ropes, of their own accord, are changed from one wheel to another; with an illustration, pp. 14 to 20.
2. Another hoisting machine, with an illustration, pp. 20 to 23.
No. II.
1. Professor L. R.'s thoughts about the manufacture of salt in northern countries.-Concerning this article Swedenborg says in Document 54 (Vol. I, p. 247), "I have inserted Doctor Roberg's experiment, and his proposition for the manufacture of salt, which I have altered throughout, so that the experiment can now be made more accurately. Should the Doctor desire his name to appear, notwithstanding the many changes which have been made in the article, he is free to have it;" pp. 28 to 31.
2. A table by which carolins (a Swedish and German Gold coin) may be changed into dalers in copper, and into dalers in silver, p. 33 et seq.
3. Another speedy method of changing carolins into any sort of money, pp. 34 to 39.
No. III.
A new and easy method of making air-pumps by pouring water into pipes, with an illustration, and the necessary mathematical formul, pp. 50 to 64.
No. IV.
1. A project for a machine with wings and sails, by which one may attempt to fly in the air, by N. N., with Assessor Polhem's objections, pp. 80 to 83. See Document 310, no. 6.
2. An experiment concerning the resistance offered by snow and water a bullet of lead moving at its greatest speed, and concerning its recoil in snow, and out of snow, pp. 84 to 86.
3. A new method of finding the longitude of places, at sea as well as on land, by means of the moon, pp. 86 to 99.
No. V.
This number, by the wish of Charles XII, was printed both in the Swedish and Latin languages, (see Document 69: Vol. I, p. 2:7); it was written entirely by Swedenborg, and contains:
1. A description of Polhem's ingenious tap, by which the quantity of a liquid drawn from a cask is recorded; together with a mathematical demonstration of the principles which are involved in it, pp. 100 to 114.
2. An arithmetical computation of the contents of cubes, cylinders, and spheres, pp. 114 to 124.
3. A new method of obtaining the same result by the application of algebra to geometry, pp. 124 to 138.
No. VI.
This number was intended for the months of April, May, and June, 1717, but it was not printed until October, 1718 (see Document 81). Nos. I to V of the "Ddalus" were printed in Upsal, but No. VI in Skara.
1. An easy method of counting balls, which are stored in a triangular form, pp. 4 to 6.
2. A proof that our vital nature consists mostly of small tremulations, with a great number of experiments, pp. 10 to 14.--This is the first article which Swedenborg published on the nature of the human body.
3. A curve, the secant of which always forms the same angles with it, pp. 14 to 16.
1717. (8.) Underrttelse om thet frtenta Stjernesunds Arbete, thess bruk och frtening (Information concerning the tinware of Stjernsund, its use and the method of tinning). Stockholm, Werner, 1717; 4 pages, 4to.
This tract does not bear Swedenborg's name; yet as it is attributed to him in Bjrnstjerna's catalogue, and likewise in the list of his works appended to his biographical sketch in the "Biografiskt Lexicon;" and as he actually spent some time at Stjernsund in 1717 (see Document 69), it is quite possible that, to please Polhem, he wrote it, and had it printed in Stockholm.
1717. (9.) The importance of instituting an Astronomical Observatory in Sweden; with a plan by which this way be carried out, in MS., 4 pages, large folio. See Document 311, no. 3.
This paper was written in Swedish in the beginning of 1717; for in a letter dated June 26, 1717, Swedenborg stated to Benzelius, that "he communicated the plan respecting the Observatory to Secretary Cederholm." In this paper Swedenborg first recapitulates what has been done by other nations and in other countries for the encouragement of astronomy by the erection of observatories, and the appointment of efficient staffs of observers; and then shows the importance of having such an observatory in the north of Europe for the purpose (1) of determining more minutely the parallaxes, and (2) the whole system of refractions; (3) of mapping the fixed stars; (4) of making it a basis for measuring a degree of the terrestrial latitude; (5) of taking observations of the inclination and declination of the magnetic needle; (6) of making meteorological observations, and (7) of establishing the facts in respect to the aurora borealis. Afterwards he offers a plan as to how such an observatory may be established at the present time, and with the means that were then at the disposal of the Swedish government.
1717. (10.) De causis rerum (On the causes of things), in MS. 4 pages, 4to. See Document 311, no. 7.
In this paper are contained the germs of some theories which Swedenborg subsequently treated more fully and established at greater length. The following subjects are discussed in it: 1. The equilibrium of the planets, which is demonstrated by a ball swinging around a centre under water; 2. The most universal matter, the particles of which, Swedenborg declares, must be round; 3. The creation of matter, where the author states that at its first creation there was a long conflict between fire and water; that of the former by circum-pressure were reduced brimstone and similar substances, and of the latter salt; and that by an additional pressure between the two, of sulphureous substances was produced oil, and of salt a liquid glass, from which finally arose the earth; 4. Rain, and the ascent and descent of water in the atmosphere; this Swedenborg illustrates by fish-bladders, which finally are balanced so that they neither float on the water nor sink; when they are introduced into warm water they float, when into cold water they sink. He then makes some other interesting experiments with these fish-bladders, and afterwards applies the results, which he thus obtains, to particles of water.
This same experiment Swedenborg afterwards makes with hollow lead balls and small balls of glass.
1717. (11.) En Ny Theorie om jordens afstannande (A new Theory concerning the end of the earth), in MS.; a fragment consisting of 38 pages. See Document 311, no. 8. This paper seems to be meant by the "Theory of the Earth," which Swedenborg mentions to Benzelius in Document 72, which is dated April 4, 1717. In this paper Swedenborg first shows that everything in this world is transitory and hastens towards a decline, from which he infers that such must be the case with the earth generally. He then endeavours to prove that the earth's orbit is diminishing; and for this purpose enters into a discussion of the earth's motion around the sun and around its own axis. These two motions he shows to be due to the resistance of the medium through which the earth passes in its motion; its revolution around the sun being due to the resistance of the ether, and that around its own axis to the resistance of the air. This he proves by some interesting experiments on objects floating in the water. From the roundness of the earth, he also concludes that in the first period of its existence, it must have revolved around its axis more quickly; its round shape being due to such a quick motion. This also he proves by an experiment on a lump of clay, which when it is revolved quickly around its axis under water assumes on oval shape. From the existence of a paradise and a golden age he likewise infers that the earth must have revolved around its axis more quickly in former times, and that the days and nights, or heat and cold, must then have succeeded one another more speedily, so as to cause a perpetual spring. These subjects are discussed in the first twelve pages. The succeeding pages treat of the antediluvians and the deluge; and he here starts the theory that the earth does not increase, but decreases in size. Afterwards he discusses earthquakes, and endeavours to show that the fixed stars are retreating from the earth He then shows how the distance of the earth from the sun is to he computed, and likewise its age; by which the surviving fragment of this treatise is brought to a close.
The same subject was taken up again by the author in the following year in the little work entitled Om Jordens och Planeternas Gang och Stand, no. 18, in the present Document.
1717. (12.) Om sttet fr Handelns och Manufacturernas uphjelpande (On the mode of assisting commerce and manufactures), in MS., 6 pages, 4to. See Document 310, no. 9.
This paper contains a proposal for the formation of a company, by whom the exportation of Swedish iron and tar is to be controlled, for the benefit of their producers. A company like that proposed here by Swedenborg was subsequently established in Stockholm under the name of Jern-Contoret (Iron-Office), whose purpose it is to watch over the interests of Swedish iron.
1717. (13.) Memorial om Salt Sjuderiens inrtting i Sverige (A memorial on the establishment of salt-works in Sweden), in MS., 4 pages, folio. See Document 310, no. 10.
The plan for establishing salt-works in Sweden was submitted to the king in March or April, 1717, as appears from Document 72 (Vol. I, p. 253).
1717. (14.) Om Elden oc frgornas natur (The nature of fire and colours), in MS., 6 pages, folio. See Document 311, no. 11.
The theories, which the author seeks to establish in this dissertation, are as follows; 1. Fire owes its origin to the elasticity and fermentation of the air, since fire is fed by the air, and the air exhales it, which is meant here by fermentation. 2. By colour is here understood an appearance of light (ett sken); the colours of the rainbow are caused by the ether passing through bubbles or drops of water whereby it is refracted, and according to the angles of its refraction it presents various colours. 3. Sight is caused by an undulation of the ether, as hearing by that of the air. In the course of his argument Swedenborg declares himself to be opposed to the founding of a theory on analogy, and as preferring to base it on experiments.
1718. (15.) Regelkonsten frfatted i tio Bcker (Algebra, edited in ten books). Upsal, Werner; 135 pages, 16mo. It is not stated on the title-page in what year this work was published; but from Documents 76 and 80 it appears that it was printed in the early part of l718. It is the first treatise on Algebra published in the Swedish language, the algebraical terms having been most successfully rendered into Swedish by the author. The titles of the various books or sections are as follows:
Section I. The foundation of algebra; the definition of signs, pp. 4 to 15.
Section II. The mode of counting with letters, pp. 15 to 30.
Section III. The method of counting fractions, pp. 37 to 66. On p. 57 the author introduces the new scale for weighing metals in water and in the air, by which it can be shown, for instance, how much copper is contained in gold.
Section IV. On raising the power of letters, and computing therewith, pp. 66 to 83.
Section V. On equations, pp. 84 to 103.
Section VI. Extraction of square-roots, pp. 103 to 115.
Section VII. Raising all the roots to whatever power is required, pp. 115 to 135.
The remaining three sections, which were to treat of the affected roots, the differential and integral calculus, were not finished by Swedenborg in this treatise.
This work was most favourably noticed by the following reviews: Acta Literaria Sueci, for 1720, pp. 126 to 134; and Neure Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen auf das Jahr 1722, Part I, Leipzig, p. 378 et seq.
Swedenborg expresses himself with respect to his ARegelknost" as follows, "As I had some leisure hours here at Brunsbo, I have prepared an Algebra in Swedish; and although I had no book or other help at hand, I have tried to make it as easy and concise as possible; it will probably not exceed six sheets in print. I was induced to write it chiefly because so many in Lund and Stockholm have begun to study algebra, and because I have been requested by others to prepare it; I hope that it will be of service to the public" (Document 76, p. 290).
1718. (16.) Geometrica et Algebraica (Contributions to Geometry and Algebra); in MS., 169 pages, 4to.
This is a treatise on high Mathematics consisting of Section I to IV, and Section X of Codex 86, described in Document 310.
The plan of this work, which is written in Latin, is set forth in full on pp. 98 to 100, of Vol. II of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS. The author begins his work by first summing up briefly the results taught in his "Regelkonst," and then proceeds to what he calls the "Calculus of Exponents;" and after treating in full concerning equations, he shows how equations may be resolved into analogies; and finally he treats of his new method of finding out and demonstrating expeditiously the proportion of two geometrical magnitudes, which he discussed at greater length in Ddalus, Part V. after treating of Algebra he explains the principles of the Differential Calculus, and then passes to it discussion of the Integral Calculus.
The author now sums up the analogies and ratios presented by numbers, and then passes to the analogies and ratios furnished by geometry. These he studies no presented, 1. In lines, and especially in triangles, 2. In the circle, 3. In the ellipse, 4. In the parabola, 5. In the cubical parabola, 6. In the hyperbola, 7. In the equilateral hyperbola, 8. In the cycloid, 9. In the spiral line, and 10. In logarithmical curves.
1718. (17.) Frsk at finna stra och vestra lengden igenom Mnan, som til the Lrdas omprfvande framstlles (Attempt to find the east and west longitude by the moon, set forth for the judgment of the learned). Upsal, Werner; 35 pages, 8vo.
This is a second and enlarged edition of the tract published under the same title in the Ddalus Hyperboreus, no. IV. Swedenborg himself says concerning it in Document 79, "I have also several other matters, and among them a more thorough explanation of the method of finding the longitude of places; in the calculation of which I have gradually acquired greater facility. It was printed about the beginning of June, 1718; for under that date the author says in Document 80, that "he left the 'Attempt to find the longitude,' on the King's table, when he sat and perused it for a considerable time." In its enlarged form Swedenborg dedicated this treatise to Edmund Halley,55 Professor in the University of Oxford.
This Little treatise was very favourably reviewed by the Acta Literaria Sueci for 1720. On pp. 27 to 33 it is subjected to a most thorough analysis, and the editors declare that it is superior to all other solutions of this problem, which have been hitherto attempted. Prof. Quensel of Lund stated some objections to this method on p. 270; but a friend who, during the absence of Swedenborg, wrote a reply which was published on pp. 315 to 317, stated that these objections were well known to Swedenborg, and fully answered by him in the Swedish edition of 1718; although they were not inserted in the Latin edition of 1721, which wets the only edition known to Prof. Quensel.
The Acta Eruditorum for 1722, published in Leipzig, speaks also highly of this little work, of which they give a thorough analysis on pp. 267 to 270. Among other things the editors say, that "the author of this method is Emanuel Swedenborg, a most distinguished scholar, whose other writing have been most deservedly commended in another place."
This method is likewise discussed in Die neuen Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen for 1723, p. 1012 et seq.
A Latin edition of this little work, in a more compendious form, was published by Swedenborg in Amsterdam in 1721; which was in due time followed by three further editions. See no. 30.
1718. (18.) Om Jordens och Planetarnas Gang och Stand: thet r ngra bewisliga skil at jorden aftager i sitt lopp och nu gr longsammare n tilfrene; girande winter och sommar; daga och natter lengre i anseende til tiden nu n frut (On the motion and station of the earth and the planets, i. e. some arguments showing that the earth diminishes in its course, and goes more slowly than heretofore; causing winter and summer, days and nights to be longer, in respect to time, than formerly). Skara, Kjelberg; 40 pages, 16mo.
Concerning this little work Swedenborg says in Document 53, under date of December 8, 1718, "I have also seen through the press here my theory about the earth's diminishing its course, which I tried hard to make pleasant reading." In Document 85 he says, "In my treatise 'Concerning the earth's motion and station' I maintain that the earth moves more and more slowly both in its annual and diurnal revolution, from which it must necessarily follow, that it approaches nearer and nearer to the sun; for the more rapid the motion and revolution of the planets within the solar vortex, the greater is the distance to which they ale carried from the centre; but the slower the motion, the more they are drawn inwards." On the death of Charles XII, whose sudden demise he mourns, Swedenborg dedicated this publication to the Crown-Prince Frederic, under date of December 16, 1718.
This little work treats on the same subject as no. 11, and may be considered as its continuation.
1719. (19.) Om Wattnens Hödg och Frra Werldens starka Ebb och Flod, Bewis utur Swerje (Respecting the great depth of water, and the strong tides in the primeval world; proofs from Sweden). Upsal, Werner; pp. 40, 16mo.
Of this little work two editions were published by Swedenborg, and both in 1719; the first occupies sixteen, and the second forty pages.
Both editions are dedicated to Queen Ulrica Eleonora on her coronation day, March 17, 1719; but in the first edition the author signs himself, Em. Swedberg, and in the second Em. Swedenborg. Concerning the second edition he wrote to Ericus Benzelius on November 3, as follows: "I have improved the little treatise, which was published at Upsal, about the high water in primeval times and I have added a number of clear proofs, together with an undeniable demonstration of how stones are moved in a deep ocean; I have also adduced arguments to show how the northern horizon was changed, and that it is reasonable to suppose that Sweden in primeval ages was an island; this I have submitted to the Censor of books.
A very thorough review of this work appeared in the Acta Literaria Sueci for 1720, pp. 5 to 11; the whole of this review appeared in an English translation in the "Intellectual Repository" for 1819, pp. 455 et seq.
The attention of the learned was in recent years directed to this little work by Baron Berzelius271 in a paper read before the Scandinavian Scientific Association in 1842, where he says (pp. 46 and 47), "Emanuel Swedenborg, who became famous in many respects, was the first who called attention in a printed work entitled: 'Respecting the great depth of water and the strong tides in the primeval world; proofs from Sweden.' In a dedication to the Queen* he congratulated her on ruling over a land which is constantly enlarged at the expense of the sea. Among the proofs that a sea in a state of great commotion at one time swept over Sweden, he quotes the ridges of our mountains, whose general direction from north to south he had correctly observed; and likewise the fact that all the stones occurring therein are rolled, worn off, and rounded, even those which weigh from five to ten skeppund. He was acquainted with Sncklagren on the Kappellback, near Uddevalla, and several other places of a similar kind on the western coast of Sweden. He makes a report of the skeleton of a whale which during his stay at Upsal was discovered in West Gothland, ten Swedish miles in the country, and which was left in the care of Professor Roberg,70 that it might be deposited by him in the anatomical museum of the University, He describes also the remnants of a wrecked ship which were excavated far up on the land, as well as some gigantic pots which he examined and found to have been hollowed out by other loose stones which were agitated to and fro by water in a state of great commotion."
After mentioning some other writers on the same subject Benzelius declares, that "none of these writers, with the exception of Swedenborg, had made genuine geological examinations, and that they all treated their subjects from a historico-geographical point of view."
* Berzelius wrongly says "King."
1719. (20.) Beskrifning fver Svenska Masugnar och deras Blsningar (A Description of Swedish iron furnaces and the processes for smelting iron); in MS. The editor's copy of this work, which he had taken in Sweden, fills 84 pages, 4to.
This treatise was handed in to the College of Mines on November 2, 1719 (see Document 147, Vol. I. p. 404), and was dedicated by the author to the officers of the College. The original MS. is still preserved in the library of the College of Mines, but an attested copy is likewise in the Academy of Sciences among the Swedenborg MSS., where it figures as Codex 99.
The Introduction to the treatise constitutes a portion of Document 145. The treatise itself consists of forty-two paragraphs, in which the construction of iron furnaces and the methods of melting iron in Sweden are most thoroughly discussed; afterwards the author proposes some improvements in the construction of the furnaces, and finally describes what he considers a model furnace.
1719. (21.) Anatomi af vr aldrafinatse Natur wisande att vrt rrande och lefwande wsende bestr af Contremiscentien (Anatomy of our most subtle nature showing that our moving and living force consists of tremulations); in MS., 48 pages, 4to.
From Document 85 it appears that towards the close of October, 1719, Swedenborg wrote an anatomical dissertation concerning which he expressed himself as follows: "I have also written a little work on the anatomy of our vital forces which, I maintain, consist of tremulations; for this purpose I made myself thoroughly acquainted with the anatomy of the nerves and membranes, and I have proved the harmony which exists between it and the interesting geometry of tremulations; together with many other ideas, where I have found that I agreed with those of Baglivius. The day before yesterday I handed them in to the Royal Medical College." In the Proceedings of the College of Health (Sundhet's Collegium) for 1710 to 1720) the following notice is taken of this dissertation: "October, 1719.--The Syndicus reported that the Assessor of the Royal College of Mines, the well-born Emanuel Swedenborg, had submitted to the College for examination a work entitled: Anatomi af vr aldrafinaste Natur wisande att vrt rrande och lefwande wsende bestr af Contremiscentien.
The College resolved that this treatise should be read in turn by all the assessors of the College; and that afterwards they should pronounce an opinion respecting it."
A copy of this dissertation Swedenborg began sending to Ericus Benzelius in January, 1720, for the use of the professors at Upsal; he sent him, however, only chapters I to VI and XIII which is all that has been preserved to us of this important treatise. It fills forty-eight closely written quarto pages. See Document 311, no. 25.
1719. (82.) Nya Anledningar til Grufwors Igenfinnande eller ngra n oopfundna Grep till at opleta Grufwor och Skatter, som i jorden diupt ro gimda (New Directions for discovering metallic reins, or some hints hitherto unknown for the discovery of mineral veins and treasures deeply bidden in the earth); in MS., pp 14, 4to.
This treatise Swedenborg submitted to the College of Mines in November, 1719, as appears from Document 87; he also sent a copy of it to Ericus Benzelius for the use of the Literary Society of Upsal, before it was read on February 5, 1720. It fills thirteen closely written 4to pages, see Document 311, no. 22.
The principle that the author endeavours to set forth in this dissertation is that from every metal there proceeds a sphere, which in time penetrates the whole of the stratum of the earth around it, and determines the nature of the vegetation which grows on the surface. He holds also that there is a correspondence between the upper strata of the earth and the lower; so that from the configuration of the upper, you can judge of the nature of the lower, strata. These features, he holds, ought to de made the subjects of scientific inquiry; and he shows in what manner this inquiry ought to be carried on.
1719. (23.) Underrttelse om Docken, Slysswerken och Saltwerket (Information concerning docks, canal-locks, and saltworks). Stockholm, Werner; 8 pages, 4to.
This tract contains a description of the dock in Carlscrona, and also of the canal-locks at Carlsgraf near the outlet of Lake Wenner, and likewise at Trolhtta; it contains also something about the manufacture of salt. The building of the dock of Carlscrona is treated by the author more fully in the Latin language, in a tract, published in Amsterdam in 1721. See no. 31.
1719. (24.) Frslag til wrt Mynts och Mls indelning, s at rkningen kan lttas och alt Brk afskaffas (Proposal for regulating our coinage and measures, by which computation is facilitated, and fractions are abolished). Stockholm, Kongl. Bok-Tryckeriet; 8 pages, quarto.
Concerning this tract, which was reprinted in 1795, the author says in Document 87, "It is very probable that what I have printed in connection with a decimal system in our coinage and measures, and which fills a sheet, will be my last."
1720. (25.) Om Wennerns fallande och stigande och huru wida thet hrrra kan of watnets tillopp eller aflopp igenom Strmmar (Concerning the rise and fall of Lake Wenner, and how far this is due to the flow of water into it, and the carrying off of water by streams); in MS., 7 pages, folio. See Document 311, no. 23.
An abstract of this paper was printed in the Acta Literaria Sueci for 1720, pp. 111 to 116.
1720. (26.) Principia Rerum Naturalium ab experimentis et geometria sive ex posteriori et priori educta (First principles of natural things deduced from experience and geometry, or a posteriori and a priori); in MS., 560 pages, quarto. See Document 310, Codex 87.
This work, which was never published by Swedenborg, treats of the same subject, which he at a later period discussed in Vol. I of his Opera Philosophica et Miineralia; and as both these works bear the same title: viz. Principia Rerum Naturalium, the former may be denominated the "lesser Principia," and the latter the "larger Principia." The "lesser Principia" may be fairly considered the first cast of the larger work; and it is an indispensable help to the proper understanding of it. For while in the latter work the results at which the author arrived are presented in strictly synthetical order, in the former these results may be studied genetically or in successive order. Instead of the finites, actives, and elements of the larger work we find here "particles" from the first to the tenth order, and their genesis is described with all the necessary mathematical formul and diagrams, so that this work serves to explain several of the diagrams and demonstrations which have remained unintelligible in the larger work.
This work seems to be Part I of that which Swedenborg published in 1721 under the title: Prodromus Principioum naturalium, &c. (no. 28); for on p. 532 he speaks of a work on "salt and the metals" which is to follow.
1721. (27.) Epistola Nobilissimi Emanuelis Swedenborgii ad Virum Celeberrimum Jacobum Melle296 (Letter of Emanuel Swedenborg to Jacob Melle). See Acta Literaria Sueci for 1721, pp. 192 to 196.
This letter, which treats of the fluctuations of the primeval ocean, is dated Stockholm, May 21, 1721. It was translated into English and appeared in the Acta Germanica, Vol. I, London, 1742; pp. 66 to 65; in 1847 it was again printed in the Appendix to the English edition of Swedenborg's Miscellaneous Observations, no 33.
1721. (28.) Prodromus Principiorum Rerum Naturalium sive Novorum Tentaminum Chymiam et Physicam experimentalem geometrice explicandi (A fore-runner of the first principles of natural things, or of new attempts to explain chemistry and experimental physics geometrically). Amsterdam, John Osterwyk; 199 pages, 16mo.
The work opens with a discussion of the primeval ocean by which the earth was covered in the beginning. The author then proceeds to Part VIII of his Principia Naturalia, which treats of the different positions of round particles. Parts I to VII seem to be contained in the work discussed as no. 26. The remaining parts or chapters of the work, which are liberally illustrated by diagrams, are as follows: Part IX, the theory of water, briefly shewing the geometrical properties and internal mechanism of its particles; Part X, the shapes of the interstices of water in the fixed quadrilateral pyramidal position; Part XI, the theory of common salt, containing geometrical and experimental demonstrations of the internal mechanism of its particles; Part XII, the theory of acid, containing geometrical and experimental demonstrations of the particle of the acid of salt, and shelving the mechanism of its figure; Part XIII, the theory of nitre, containing geometrical and experimental demonstrations of its particles, and shewing the mechanism of their shape and position; Past XIV, the theory of oil and of volatile urinous salt [ammonia], stating the experiments on these substances, and briefly explaining the geometry of the particles; appendix, containing some general rules concerning transparency, and white, red, and yellow colours; from the author's theory respecting light and rays; Part XXV, the theory of lead, containing a geometrical and experimental demonstration of its particles, or internal mechanism. The volume closes with experiments on silver and mercury.
An English translation of this work prepared by Mr. Charles E. Strutt was published by the Swedenborg Association in 1847, under the following title: "Some Specimens of a Work on the Principles of Chemistry, with other treatises," The other treatises published in that volume are nos. 29-31.
A favourable notice of this work appeared in the Acta Eruditorum of Leipzig, in the number for February, 1722, pp. 83 to 57. At the close of his review the critic says! "It is to be observed that the illustrious author endeavoured to give an account a priori of all those facts which are established experimentally; and indeed that he endeavours to deduce the ultimate causes from the shape, the size, the weight, and the interstices of the particles. In doing so he displayed much penetration, and no less industry; but how much of truth he attained in his theories, we leave to others to determine."
A second edition of this work was published in Amsterdam by John and Abraham Strander in 1727, and a third in Hildburghausen in 1754 by Mr. G. Hanisch.
1721. (29.) Nova Observata et Inventa circa Ferrum et Ignem, et prcipue circa naturam Ignis elementarem, una cum n ova Camini inventione (New Observations and discoveries respecting Iron and Fire, and particularly respecting the elementary nature of Fire: together with a new construction of stoves). Amsterdam, John Osterwyk; 56 pages, 16mo, with many illustrations.
This work was translated into English by Mr. C. E. Strutt, and published by the Swedenborg Association in 1847, in a volume together with the "Principles of Chemistry, (see no. 28) pp. 183 to 211. A second edition of the original Latin was published in Amsterdam in 1727.
This work also wits favourably reviewed by the Acta Eruditorum of Leipzig in the number for April, 1722, pp. 225 et seq.
1721. (30). Methodus nova inveniendi Longitudines Locorum terra marique ope Lun (A new method of finding the longitudes of places, on land and at sea, by lunar observations). Amsterdam, John Osterwyk; 29 pages, 8vo.
In this work is presented in conciser form what the author published on this subject in the Swedish language in 1718, and to which publication (no. 17) we refer the reader for further particulars.
A second edition of this little work was published by Messrs. John and Abraham Strander of Amsterdam in 1727; a third edition was issued in Hildburghausen in 1754; and a fourth was published by Swedenborg himself in 1766, concerning which see Document 203, Vol. I, p. 590 et seq.
An English edition prepared by Mr. Strutt was published by the Swedenborg Association in 1847, in the same volume with the "Principles of Chemistry," pp. 213 to 227.
1721. (31.) Artificia nova mechanica Receptacula Navalia et Aggeres Aquaticos construendi; et Modus mechanice explorandi virtutes et qualitates diversi generis et constructionis Navigiorum (A New mechanical plan for constructing Docks and Dykes; and a mode of discovering the powers of Vessels by the application of mechanical principles). Amsterdam, John Osterwyk; 21 pages, 8vo; a second edition was published in 1727.
The scientific papers were published by the author in one volume with the treatise "On finding the longitude" (no. 31). They were mentioned in the Acta Eruditorum of Leipxig, for May, 1722,
pp. 266 et seq.; and an English translation prepared by Mr. Strutt was published by the Swedenborg Association in London in 1847, as an Appendix to the "Principles of Chemistry," pp. 229 to 241.
The first paper describes the building of the Dock at Carlscrona which had been previously described by the author in the Swedish language in no. 23, and the second paper discusses the construction of the famous dam near Lyckeby, both of which mechanical feats were executed by Christopher Polhem with Swedenborg's assistance.
1722. (32.) Nov Regul de Caloris Conservatione in Conclavibus (New Rules for maintaining Heat in Rooms); in the Acta Literaria Sueci for 1722, pp. 282-285.
This paper the author sent to Ericus Benzelius in a letter, dated Lige, November 29, 1721, which is photo-lithographed in Vol. I of the Swedenborg MSS., pp. 185 and 189. See Document 311, no. 26.
1722. (33.) Miscellanea Observata circa Res Naturales et prsertim circa Mineralia, Ignem, et Montium Strata (Miscellaneous Observations on the things of nature, and especially on minerals, fire, and the strata of mountains). Parts I to III, Leipzig, 164 pages, 16mo; Part IV, Schiffbeck near Hamburg, H. H. Holle, 56 pages, 16mo.
Parts I to III are dedicated to Count Gustaf Bonde,175 President of the College of Mines, and Part IV to Ludwig Rudolph,15 Duke of Brunswick. Twelve chapters of this work the author sent in MS. to Ericus Benzelius, for the use of the Literary Society of Upsal.
These chapters are photo-lithographed in Vol. I of the Swedenborg MSS., pp. 182 to 200. The following are the contents of the volume:
PART I.
1. The different kinds of Mountains in Sweden, with a disquisition on their origin.
2. Petrified Plants found at Lige.
3. The Strata of Shells at Aix-la-Chapelle.
4. The harder Strata, consisting of the common Granite, and their origin.
5. Inclined Strata, and the causes of their inclination.
6. The causes of the varieties in Strata.
7. Observations made and to be made concerning Strata, their separation, arrangement, and differences.
8. On Stony Marl, commonly called Margenstein.--This chapter is photo-lithographed on p. 197, of Vol. I of the Swedenborg MSS.
9. On the Circular Cruses found in certain stones, and on Mountain Nuclei.--The photo-lithographed copy is on p. 190, ibid.
10. The Primeval Matter of the Earth, with reasons for conjecturing that it was mater.
11. Subsidence of the Seas towards the North.
12. Observations and Experiments on the origin, temperature, and saline components of Hot Springs.
PART II.
13. On Vitrification and the change of Particles into Glass.
14. The softening of hard bodies, and the origin of tites, Belemnites, &c.
15. The entrance of Liquids, as of Water and Fire, into hard bodies.
16. The process of Cooling, or the escape of Fire from hard bodies.
17. Improvement of Stoves in Sweden.
18. A new construction of Stove.
19. On Wind or Draught Furnaces.
20. The causes of Smoke in Rooms.--See p. 197 of the photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg, Vol. II.
21. A new construction of an air-pump, worked by mercury.
22. The Salt-works on parts of the Swedish coast.-The photo-lithographed MS. on p. 194, ibid.
23. The purification of Salt by repeated boiling.--See the photo-lithographed MS. on p. 195, ibid.
24. A Method of ascertaining, by means of a Triangle, the individual weights of mixed Metals, the whole mass having previously been weighed in water and in air.--This chapter is photo-lithographed on p. 195, ibid.
25. The Glass of Archimedes; an instrument for ascertaining the proportions of mixed Metals mechanically, without any calculation.--The photo-lithographed chapter is on p. 196, ibid.
26. Reasons showing the impossibility of transmuting Metals, especially into Gold.--The photo-lithographed chapter is on p. 183, ibid.
27. Why the Blood circulates through the Trunks of the arteries; photo-lithographed on p. 187, ibid.
PART III.
28. A new germination of pure mater when converted into Ice, from experiments; photo-lithographed on p. 182, ibid.
29. An hypothesis of the shapes and different sizes of Elementary Particles; photo-lithographed on p. 184, ibid.
30. The great power and intense motion of Bullular Particles, especially the smaller; photo-lithographed on p. 186, ibid.
31. Hypothesis of the Undaletion and Vibration of Bullular particles; photo-lithographed on p. 187, ibid.
32. Hypothesis of the figure of the Particles of Fire and Air.
33. The interfluent subtle Matter between the Particles of Water; photo-lithographed on p. 193, ibid.
34. The Mechanism of Bullular Particles.
35. The centripetency of heavy Bodies in elements consisting of Bullular Particles.*
* Chapters 29 to 35, especially those which were not photo-lithographed, were prepared by Swedenborg. as early as January, 1718; as appears from Document 78, Vol. I, p. 296; and likewise from Document 79.
36. The hypothesis of a Central Fire discussed.
37. Phenomena of Phosphorescence and of the Ignis Fatuus explained according to the Bullular Theory.
38. The increments and degrees of Heat in Bodies, according to the Bullular Theory.
PART. IV.
39. A new Sexagenary Calculus, invented by Charles XII, of glorious memory, late King of Sweden.
40. Reasons to shew that Mineral Effluvia, or Particles, penetrate into their Matrices, and impregnate them with metal, by means of water as a vehicle.
42. On the Petrifying Fluid; with remarks to prove that it is not identical with the water that produces the Stalactite.
41. On Stalactites, and Crystallizations of Stone, with remarks on the resemblance of these formations to Congealed Water.
43. The formation of Quartz and Spar, with reasons shewing the probability of their postdiluvian origin.
44. General observations on Furnaces for smelting Iron, with suggestions for improving them.
This work was reviewed in the Acta Eruditorum of Leipzig, for 1722, p. 262, and also for 1723, p. 96. It was translated into English by Mr. Charles E. Strutt, and published by the Swedenborg Association in 1847, under the following title, "Miscellaneous Observations connected with the Physical Sciences."
1722. (34.) Fabula de Amore et Metamorphosi Uranies in Virum et in famulum Apollinis, ad illustrissimum et excellentissimum R. S. Senatorem, Comitem Mauritium Wellingk297 (Fable of the love and metamorphosis of the Muse Urania into a man and servant of Apollo, addressed to the most illustrious and excellent Senator, Count Maurice Wellingk). Schiffbeck, near Hamburg, 8 pages, 4to.
This elegiac Poem is dated Brunswick, April 2, it is signed E. S. It was introduced by Dr. Im. Tafel into the third edition of the "Ludus Heliconiust" published in Tübingen in 1841.
1722. (35.) Expositio Legis Hydrostatic, qua demonstrari potest effectus et vis aqu diluvin altissim in saxa et materias fundi sui (An Elucidation of a Law of Hydrostatics, demonstrating the Power of the deepest Waters of the Deluge, and their Action on the Rocks and other Substances at the bottom of the Sea), published in the Acta Literaria Sucie for 1722, pp. 353 to 355.
This paper is an answer to an attack on Swedenborg's theory that large rocks were shifted about at the bottom of the aboriginal ocean; this attack is contained in a review of his Miscellanea Observata, which appeared in the Historie der Gelehrsamkeit unserer Zeiten, Leipzig, l722, Part IV, p. 320. Further particulars may be seen in Document 98, Vol. I, p. 333.
An English translation of this article appeared in London in 1742 in the Acta Germanica, Vol. I, pp. 122-124; and another translation prepared by Mr. Strutt is contained in the appendix to his English edition of the Miscellaneous Observations, pp. 156 to 159.
1722. (36.) Ofrgripelige Tankar om Swenska Myntets Frnedring och Frhgning (Frank views on the fall and rise of the value of Swedish money). Stockholm, Werner, 20 pages, 4to.
Concerning this little work Swedenborg says in Document 132, Vol. I, p. 378, "I have published here something concerning our Swedish currency, in which I give the reason why it ought not to be lowered; it has caused quite a stir here." A second edition of this little work, according to Bjrnstjerna, "as published in l769
l722. (37.) De Magnete et ejus qualitatibus (The Magnet and its qualities); in MS., 299 pages, 4to.
On its title-page this MS. volume bears the inscription: London, 1722; from which it appears that Swedenborg had intended it for publication in that year. For further particulars respecting the contents of this volume, see Document 310, Codex 81.
1723. (38.) De Genuina Metallorum Tractatione (On the genuine treatment of metals); in MS.
Of this work Swedenborg published a prospectus in 1722, where he states that "towards the end of the next year, l723, a work will be printed under the above title." According to this prospectus, which constitutes Document 192, Vol. I, this work was to consist of the nineteen parts. The work itself was never printed; but four out of the nineteen parts have been preserved in MSS. They are among the Swedenborg MSS. in the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm; their titles are as follows:
1. De Suphure et Pyrite (On Sulphur and Pyrites), 3.79 pages, 4to.
2. De Sale Communi, h. e. de sale fossili vel gemmeo, marino, et fontano (The common Salt, i. e. rock-salt, sea-salt, and salt obtained from saline springs); 343 pages, 4to.
3. De Secretione Argenti et Cupri qu ASeger-Arbete" vocatur (The secretion of Silver and copper, which is called Arefining"), 363 pages. 4to.
4. De Vitriolo, deque modis vitriolum elixandi, &c. (Vitriol, and the modes of extracting it, &c.), 446 pages, 4to.
For further particulars respecting the contents of these MSS., see Document 310, Codices 83 to 85.
1724 to 1733.* (39.) Generaliter de Motu Elementorum (The motion of the elements in general); in MS., 5 pages, 4to.
This motion is considered by the author first in inorganic, and afterwards in organic nature; where he shows how it affects the membranes and tunics in the body. For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 88, I.
* That the following five treatises were written by Swedenborg between 1724 and 1733 we maintain on the following grounds: These treatises are contained in the Common-place book in which he entered a description of the journeys which he made in 1733 and 1734. This description, however, does not run on consecutively in that book, but is written on the intermediate blank leaves between the above five treatises, as appears from the following statement: No. 39 extends from pp. 3-7; No. 40 is written on pp. 40, 47, 49, 50-65, 86, and 87; No. 41 on pp. 116 to 131; No. 43 on pp. 152 to 158; No. 42 on pp.159 to 213. No. 44, however, which is Swedenborg's journal of travels is contained on pp. 9-39, 46, 48-50, 55-86, 107-109, 214, and 216. If Swedenborg's journal of travels, however, which was written in 1733 and l734, is entered on the intermediate leaves between the above fire treatises, these treatises must have been in the book before 1733, and thus written between 1724 and l733.
1724 to 1733. (40.) Adversaria in Principia Rerum Naturalium (Papers belonging to the Principia, &c.); in MS., 13 pages, 4to.
These papers treat on the following subjects: 1. Materials for the preface 2. Definition of the natural point, 3. The motion and the figure of the motion of that point; 4. The point geometrically considered; 5. The point metaphysically considered; 6. Further derivations from the point; 7. Definition of the first particle; 8. Nature is similar to the web of a spider; 9. Concerning the order of the particles. For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 88, V.
1724 to 1733. (41.) De mechanismo anim et corporis (The mechanism of the soul and body); in MS., 16 pages, 4to.
This seems to be the first cast of the work published by the author in 1734 under the title: Prodromus Philosophi Ratiocinantis de Mechanismo operationis Anim et Corporis. The arrangement and treatment of these two works are, however, entirely different; for in the above work the author approaches his subject more analytically and inductively as it were; while in the latter he treats it more philosophically and synthetically. These two treatises are therefore supplementary to one another, and they exhibit clearly the relations which Swedenborg supplied to exist between the soul and the body, before his illumination.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 98, VI.
1724 to 1733. (42.) Comparatio Ontolog et Cosmologi generalis Domini Christiani Wolfi cum Principiis nostris [i.e. Emanuelis Swedenborgii] rerum naturalium (A Comparison of the ontology and cosmology of Christian Wolf with Swedenborg's APrincipia rerum naturalium"); in MS., 49 pages, 4to.
After speaking most highly of Wolf as a philosopher the author first examines his definitions of God, the soul, thought, perception, sensation, imagination, opposing to them his own ideas on these subjects. Then after discussing atheists, he continues to speak of the memory and the power of imagination to reproduce impressions; and in connection therewith treats of sleep and fantasies. Afterwards he discusses attention and reflection, the understanding and cognition, delight and disgust, the will, and finally he treats of the constitution of the soul and its immortality.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 88, VII and VIII.
1724 and 1733. (43.) Observata in corpore humano (Swedenborg's anatomical observations); in MS., 6 pages, 4to.
In this paper are contained the anatomical results of the author's examination of the human body. See Document 310, Codex 88, IX.
1733-1734. (44.) Itinerarium ex annis 1733 et 1734 (Journal of travel for the years 1733 and 1734); in MS., 80 pages, 4to.
This work was printed by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1740 from a copy prepared by a friend in Stockholm. It was also printed by the photo-lithographic process in 1869, and from the photo-lithographic copy the translation was made which constitutes Document 205. For further particulars, see footnote to Vol. III p. 6.
1734. (45.) Emanuelis Swedenborgii Opera Philosphica et Mineralia (Philosophical and metallurgical works by Emanuel Swedenborg); 3 vols., Dresden and Leipzig, Frederic Hekel, 1734.
Vol. I. Principia Rerum Naturalium sive Novurum Tentaminum phmena mundi elementaris philosophice explicandi (The first principles of natural things, being new attempts toward a philosophical explanation of the elementary world), three parts, 452 pages, folio, with copper engravings.
PART 1. 112 pages. After the dedication which is addressed to Ludwig Rudolph,15 Duke of Brunswick and Lneburg, follows the preface in which the author gives an account of the whole work.
The contents of the ten chapters of which it is composed are as follows:
Chap. I. The means which conduce to true Philosophy, and concerning the true philosopher.
Chap. II. A philosophical argument concerning the First Simple from which the world, with its natural things, originated; that is concerning the First Natural Point, and its existence from the Infinite.
Chap. III A philosophical argument on the First or Simple Finite, and its origin from Points.
Chap. IV. A philosophical enquiry concerning the Second Finite, and the manner in which it derives its origin successively from the Simple Finite. Also, general observations on its co-existent, which we have denominated the Active of the First Finite; and on the manner in which it is geometrically derived from the First and Simple Finite.
Chap. V. Observations specifically on the Active of the First Finite: on its origin from the First Simple Finite; on its motion, figure, state, and other attributes and modifications: shewing that this active is one, and constitutes the sun of our system; that in like manner, it forms the first elementary particles.
Chap. VI. On the First and most Universal Element of the Mundane System, or the First Elementary Particle compounded of Finites and actives; of its motion, figure, attributes, and modes; of its origin and composition from the Second Finite and the Active of the First Finite; of its constituting the solar and stellar vortices.
Chap. VII. On the Actives of the Second and Third Finite.
Chap. VIII. On the Third Finite or Substantial.
Chap. IX. On the Second or Magnetic Element of the world; that is, of the next Elementary Particle composed of Third Finites and of the Actives of the Second and First Finite. Of its motion, figure, attributes, and modes. That this Element, together with the former, constitutes the solar vortex, and is the one which principally contributes to the phenomena of the magnet.
Chap. X. On the existence of the Sun and the formation of the Solar Vortex.
PART II., which consists of 250 pages is entitled: An Examination of the First Principles of Natural Things in respect to the phenomena of Magnetism.
In this part the substance of the work registered as no. 37, which treats of "The Magnet and its Qualities," seems to have been in a great measure embodied.
PART III, which fills the remaining 80 pages of the work, treats of the following subjects:
Chap. I. Comparison of the Sideral Heaven with the Magnetic Sphere.
Chap. II. On the Diversities of worlds.
Chap. III. The philosophical argument resumed concerning the Fourth Finite, and its origin from the Second Elementary Particle.
Chap. IV. Of the Universal Solar and Planetary Chaos, and its separation into Planets and Satellites.
Chap. V. On the Ether or Third Element of the World.
Chap. VI. On the Fifth Finite.
Chap. VII. On the Air or Fourth Element of our System.
Chap. VIII. On Fire, or the Actives of the Fourth, Fifth, and following Finites.
Chap. IX. On Water, or the pure Material Finite.
Chap. X. On Aqueous Vapour or the Fifth Element, of the World.
Chap. XI. On the Vortex surrounding the Earth, and the Earth's Progression from the Sun to the Circle of its Orbit.
Chap. XII. On the Paradise formed upon our Earth, and on the First Man; with an Appendix.
This Volume was translated into English by the Rev. Augustus Clissold, M. A., and published by the Swedenborg Association in 1846, under the title, Swedenborg's "Principia," 2 vols., 8vo.
Vol. II. Regnum Subterraneum sive Minerale de'Ferro, deque modis liquationum ferri per Europam passim in usum receptis: deque conversione ferri crudi in chalybem: de vena ferri et probatione ejus: pariter de chymicis preparatis et cum ferro et vitriolo ejus factis experimentis (The Subterranean or Mineral Kingdom in respect to Iron, and the methods of smelting it which are in use in the various parts of Europe; further the method converting crude iron into steel; the various methods of assaying iron ore; and likewise the chemical preparations and experiments made with iron and its vitriol, &c.), 376 pages, folio, with many copper engravings.
The volume is dedicated to Wilhelm,298 Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and brother of the King of Sweden. The interesting preface was translated into English by the Rev. A. Clissold, and added as an appendix to his English translation of the "Principia."
The work is divided into three sections, which treat on the following subjects:
Section I, the methods of smelting iron in Sweden, pp. 1 to 141; the methods of smelting it in the rest of Europe, pp. 142 to 194; the methods of converting iron into steel, pp. 195 to 214; on softening and purifying iron and steel, pp. 215 to 251; on rolling mills, pp. 252 and 253.
Section II, on the various iron ores, and the methods of assaying them, pp. 257 to 298.
Section III, on various chemical preparations and experiments made with iron and its vitriol, pp. 301 to 339; miscellaneous observations on iron, pp. 340 to 365; analyses of various mineral springs, pp. 366 to 386.
The chapter on the conversion of iron into steel was reprinted in Strasburg is 1737;* and the whole of Section I. was translated into French, and published in 1762 as a portion of the Descriptions des Arts et Mtiers. The title of the part into which it was introduced is as follows: Art des Forges et Fourneaux fer, par Mr. le Marquis de Courtivron et par M. Bouchy, Corresp. De l'Acad. R. des Sciences, trois cahiers; avec un quatrime sur la mme matire, qui est la traduction du Trait du Fer par Mr. Swedenborg, Suedois, traduit du latin, par M. Bouchy (The Art of Forges and Iron Furnaces by the Marquis de Courtivron and M. Bouchy, corresponding members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, in three sections; a fourth section on the same subject is a translation of the treatise on Iron by M. Swedenborg, a Swede, which was translated from the Latin by M. Bouchy). Paris, 1762, folio.
* See Emanuel Swedenborg: a Biography. By J. J. Garth Wilkinson, London, 1849, p. 29.
Vol. III. Regnum Suberraneum sive Mierale de Cupro et Orichalco, deque modis liquationum cupri per Europam passim in usum receptis: de secretione ejus ab argento: de conversione in orichalcum: inque metalla diversi generis: de lapide calaminari: de zinco: de vena cupri et probatione ejus: pariter de chymicis preparatis, et cum cupro factis experimentis (The Subterranean or Mineral Kingdom in respect to Copper and Brass, and the methods of smelting copper which are in use in the various parts of Europe; further its separation from silver, and its conversion into brass and metals of various kinds; respecting Calaraine, Zinc, and the various methods of assaying copper ore; likewise respecting the various chemical preparations and experiments made with copper, &c.), 534 pages, folio, with many copper engravings.
The volume is dedicated to King Frederic I4 of Sweden. The preface was translated into English by the Rev. A. Clissold and printed in the appendix to his English translation of the APrincipia."
This work like the preceding consists of three sections, the contents of which are as follows:
Section I. The methods of smelting copper in Sweden and Norway, pp. 1 to 132; the methods of smelting it in the rest of Europe, pp. 133 to 207; the methods of smelting proposed by various authors, pp. 208 to 246; the separation of silver and copper (the greater part of this chapter is likewise contained in Codex 84 of the Swedenborg MSS., which is discussed under no. 38 in the present Document), pp. 247 to 340; on brass and its preparation, in which calamine, as the chief zinc-ore, is likewise discussed, pp. 311 to 360; on the composition of bell-metal and the alloys of copper with other metals, pp. 361 to 400.
Section II. On the various copper ores, and the various methods of assaying them, pp. 401 to 446.
Section III. On various chemical preparations and experiments made with copper and brass, which includes a chapter on the manufacture of ultramarine, pp. 447 to 520; miscellaneous observations on copper, pp. 521 to 534.
1734. (46.) Prodromus Philosophi ratiocinantis de Infinito et causa finali Creationis: deque mechanismo operationis Anim et Corporis (Outlines of a philosophical argument on the Infinite, and the final cause of Creation; and on the mechanism of the operation of Soul and Body). Dresden and Leipzig, Hekel, 1734; pp. 270, 8vo.
This little work was dedicated by the author to Bishop Ericus Benzelius,6 his brother-in-law, and consists of two distinct parts, of which the first bears the title, The Infinite, and the final cause of creation, and the second, the Mechanism of the Intercourse between the Soul and the Body.
Two English translations of this work have been published, the first in Manchester, l795, under the auspices of the Rev. W. Cowherd; and the second, prepared by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, was published by the Swedenborg Association in 1847.
The work was reviewed in the Acta Eruditorum for 1735, pp. 556-559, but so positive opinion was expressed of its merits, although the critic hinted that it has a materialistic tendency.
It may be useful to state here in brief the ground which Swedenborg occupies as a philosopher in his treatise on "The Infinite." The philosophers in starting their systems of philosophy meet on the one hand with the terms, "Infinite" and "Finite, and on the other with the expressions, "God," "Spirit," "Matter;" and the whole drift of their systems of philosophy consists in trying to accommodate the three terms, "God," "Spirit," "Matter," in the two terms, "Infinite" and "Finite."
The materialistic school denies the Infinite and acknowledges only the Finite; and Spirit, according to its expounders, is determined by the organization of matter. The idealistic school acknowledges a distinction between Spirit and Matter, but none between Spirit and God; the philosophizing mind in the eyes of the idealists being identical with God: Spirit, from being independent of space and time, is in their eyes equivalent with the Infinite, and Matter alone they Consider as Infinite, because subject to the laws of space and time.
Swedenborg, in his philosophical system, at the very outset vindicates the term Infinite to God alone; whence he is compelled to class spirit, and hence the human soul, in the term Finite. The Finite, however, before the period of his illumination, was in his eyes that which is subject to space and time, consequently that which is measurable, and hence geometrical and mechanical.
On these philosophical grounds, therefore, he speaks in the work before us of "the mechanism of the intercourse of the soul and body." In order, however, to prove the immaterial nature of the soul and its existence after death, he introduced the doctrine of discrete degrees, and declared that the higher degrees of the Finite are Spirit, and the lower Matter; and the higher degrees he further declared to be independent of the lower, wherefore they can continue to exist, even after the lower have perished.
Such is the nature of Swedenborg's philosophy before his illumination; when he was charged not altogether without reason with favouring a certain kind of materialism.
Yet even at this stage of his philosophy he hit upon the means by which to escape from this dilemma; for he reasoned: the Infinite by its very nature and quality has no point of contact with the Finite, wherefore it is impossible for it without mediation to flow into matter, and sustain life in it. He therefore concluded that there must be an intermediate between the Infinite and the Finite, by which the Infinite can be present in the Finite, and impart life to it. This intermediate he declared in his treatise on the "Infinite" to be the "only Begotten," who makes use of the angels in carrying out His behests.
Swedenborg thus was led to assume an intermediate sphere of existence between God and Spirit.
This continued to be his attitude until l745, when his spiritual sight was fully opened by the Lord, and he was able to see by ocular proof that the intermediate sphere between God and Spirit, the existence of which he was led to infer by a process of induction, is in reality identical with Spirit itself, which is discretely or distinctly separate from matter, and, though still finite, i. e. created, is not subject to the laws of space and time which govern matter. He thus recognized that there is a Finite, which is independent of the laws of space and time, and which, nevertheless, is not infinite.
1734. (47.) Epitome Principiorum Rerum Naturalium (An abstract of the work entitled: Principia, or First Principles of Natural Things); in MS., 27 pages, 4to.
See Document 310, Codex 85, IX.
1735-1738. (48.) Fragmenta Transctionum Trium de Cerebro (Fragments of three Transactions on the Brain); in MS., 1004 pages, 4to.
This work, which was probably finished by the author some time in 1738, when he entered upon the preparation of the MS. of his OEconomia Regni Animalis, no. 52, dates from a period, when the author did not yet treat his subject analytically, as in the OEconomia Regni Animalis, and the Regni Animale, but synthetically. While therefore, in another work on the brain (no. 56), which is a part of the Regnum Animale, he approached his subject from without, and treated of the various organs and provinces of which it is composed, before he even ventured to speak in a general way of its cortical and medullary substances; and while in the Regnum Animale, the part on the Brain comes after those on the organs of the abdomen and thorax, and after the organs of sense; in the above work he opens his subject with a discussion of the inmost substance of the brain, the cortical, and after making his way from the centre of the brain to its circumference, he comes to those parts of the body which are animated by the blood. For although the above work originally contained only three Transactions, all of which treat of the brain, a fourth Transaction was promised on p. 762, which is to treat of the red blood.
The author seems to have entered upon the preparation of this work soon after he returned to Sweden in 1734, after printing his Opera Philosophica et Mineralia. That he did not being it sooner is proved by the fact of his quoting Winslow in it, whose work on the anatomy of the human body* was only printed in 1732.
* "Exposition anatomique de la structure du corps humain," Paris, 1732, 5 Vols.
For the contents of this work, see Document 310, Codex 65.
1736-1739. (49.) Mina [i. e. Swedenborg's] Resors Beskrifning (Description of my Journeys), in MS., 40 pages, 4to.
An English translation of this work constitutes Documents 204 and 206, to which we refer the reader for further particulars.
1738. (50.) De Via ad Cognitonem Anim (The way to the knowledge of the Soul); in MS., 5 pages, 4to.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 65, no. 3.
1738. (51.) De Fide et Bonis Operibus (Faith and good works), in MS., 10 pages, 4to.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 65, no. 4.
1738-1741. (52.) OEconomia regni animalis, in Trasactiones divisa (Economy of the Animal Kingdom, divided into transactions), London and Amsterdam, Franc. Changuion. Part I, 1740, pp. 358, 4to; Part II, 1741, p. 194, 4to.
The object of this work, as well as of the Regnum Animale, no. 71, is to arrive at a knowledge of the human soul. The contents of Transaction I are as follows:
Part I: Chap. I. The Composition and Genuine Essence of the Blood.
Chap II, The Arteries and Veins, their Tunics, and the Circulation of the Blood.
Chap. III. The Formation of the Chick in the Egg, the Arteries, Veins, and Rudiments of the Heart.
Chap. IV. The Circulation of the Blood in the Ftus; the Foramen Ovale and Ductus Arteriosus belonging to the Heart in Embryos and Infants.
Chap. V. The Heart of the Turtle.
Chap. VI. The peculiar Arteries and Veins of the Heart, and the Coronary Vessels.
Chap. VII. The Motion of the Adult Heart.
Part II: Introduction to Rational Psychology, consisting especially of an exposition of the Doctrine of Series and Degrees.
The following subjects are treated in Transaction II:
Chap. I. The Motion of the Brain; shewing that its Animation is coincident with the Respiration of the Lungs.
Chap. II. The Cortical Substance of the Brain specifically.
Chap. III. The Human Soul.
On the first page of Codex 88, Swedenborg declares that "He finished writing his work in Amsterdam on December 27, 1739, at the stroke of twelve,"* (see Vol. III of the Photo-lithographed Swedenborg MSS., p. 141). He hesitated at first very much as to the title he should give to it, and what parts to introduce first, and he wrote out, in fact, six different titles for his book, which are reproduced in Vol. VI of the Swedenborg MSS., pp. 355 to 358.
* From this it follows that he must have entered upon its preparation some time in 1738.
The first title is as follows: Regnum Animale tam physicum quam psychologicum, seu Systema principiorum et phnomenorum naturalium de utraque parte Hominis, hoc est de Anima et Corpore et utriusque causis et effectibus, actionibus, et passionibus, &c., et simul de Mundo elementari, in quo viviur; tam ex principiis quam ab experimentis, philosophice, mechanice, physice, chymice, et anatomice exploratum et demonstratum (The Animal Kingdom, the physical as well as the psychological, or a System of the natural principles and phenomena exhibited in both parts of man, via. in his Soul and Body, and in the causes, effects, actions, and passions of both, as well as in the elementary World, their abiding place; explored and demonstrated philosophically, mechanically, physically, chemically, and anatomically, both from principles and experiments). As a motto he suggests the two following Latin verses:
O quam multa diu, qu patuere, latent! (Oh, how long are many things hidden, which have lain open to our gaze!)
O quam multa, diu qu lature, patent! (Oh, how many things, which have lain hidden for a long time, are now exposed to our gaze!)
The reader will notice that in this title the author places the soul first, and the body afterwards; and also that in specifying the means by which he intends to explore and demonstrate his subject, he places philosophically first, and physically afterwards. In the second title, which is otherwise identical with the first, he inverts this order and places the body before the soul, and the means of exploration and demonstration he arranges as follows: physice, chymice, anatomice, mechanice, et philosophice (physically, chemically, anatomically, mechanically, and philosophically); in the second title he expresses himself in favour of the following of his motto:
Usque, diu qu lature, patent.
(What has long lain concealed, nevertheless now is exposed to our gaze.)
There is more implied in the inversion of terms in these two titles, than appears at first sight: for it means nothing less than that the synthetic treatment which descends from the soul to the body, and from philosophy to the concrete facts of science, is to be abandoned, and the analytical method, which ascends from the body to the soul, and from effects to causes, to be substituted in its place.
The second title, which was crossed out by the author, was replaced by the third, which is as follows: Deo Auspice.--Transactiones de OEconomia Animali de utraque parte hominis, heic de cerebro, cerebello, medulla oblongata et spinali, et de nervis, anatomice, physice, et psychologice demonstrata (Under the auspices of God.--Transactions on the Animal Economy of both parts of man, here concerning the larger and lesser brain, the prolonged and spinal marrow, and the nerves demonstrated anatomically, physically, and psychologically). We see here that although Swedenborg had already resolved to treat his subjects henceforth analytically, he nevertheless still persists in treating of the inmost organs of man first, and thus in moving from the centre to the circumference.
The fourth title is an emendation of the third, and reads as follows: OEconomia Animalis de utraque parte hominis in transactiones divisa; heic de cerebro, cerebello, medullis oblongata et spinali, deque nervis, anatomice, physice, et philosophice perquisita; quibus Pathologia capitis et nervorum subnectitur ab Aphaneide (The Animal Economy of both parts of man, divided into Transactions; of which the present treats of the larger and lesser brain, the prolonged and spinal marrow, and the nerves; investigated anatomically, physically, and philosophically; and to which is added the pathology of the head and the nerves, by one who desires to remain unknown).
The fourth title was crossed out by Swedenborg, and he was at first tempted to call his work again: Regnum Animale, secundum suos gradus et series; yet this also was crossed out, and he originated instead the following fifth title: OEconomia Regni Animalis in transactiones divisa, quarum hc prima de corde, arteriis, venis, sanguine agit, anatomice, physice, et philosophice perlustrata (The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, divided into transactions, of which the first treats of the heart, the arteries, the veins, the blood; considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically).
Here then the analytical treatment replaced the synthetical so far that the author resolved to treat the dominion of the red blood which is governed by the heart, before that which is presided over by the brain.
The sixth title is a further emendation of the fifth, and consists of the form which bears the greatest similarity to that which was finally adopted by the author for his printed work; it is as follows: OEconomia Regni Animalis in Transactiones divisa, quarum hc prima de sanguine, ejus arteriis, venis, corde, et in genere de musculis agit, anatomice, physice, et philosophice perlustrata (The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, divided into transactions, of which the first treats of the blood, its arteries, veins, and the beast, and in general concerning the muscles; examined anatomically, physically, and philosophically).
The full title of Part I of the work as finally adopted by Swedenborg is as follows: OEconomia Regni Animalis in Transactiones divisa; quarum hc prima de sanguine, ejus arteriis, venis, et corde agit: anatomice, physice, et philosophice perlustrata; cui accedit introductio ad Psychologiam rationalem (The Economy of the Animal Kingdom divided into transactions, the first of which treats the blood, its arteries, veins, and the heart; considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically; to which is added an Introduction to rational Psychology). The full title of Part II is Transactio Secunda, de Cerebri motu et cortice, et de Anima humana (Second Transaction concerning the motion and the cortex of the Brain, and concerning the human Soul).
The first edition of this work was published in 1740 and 1741; a second edition which, however, does not differ from the first except in the title-page, is dated 1742. Part I was furnished with an index by the author; the index to Part II, which was left in MS. (see Document 310, Codex 38, no. 1), is printed in Vol. VI of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., pp. IX to XI.
An English translation of this work prepared by the Rev. Augustus Clissold, M. A., was published in London in 1845, in 2 Vols, 8vo.; and was reprinted in America in 1868.
1740. (53.) Philosophia Universalium Characteristica et Mathematica (A Characteristic and Mathematical Philosophy of Universals), in MS., 5 pages, folio.
This is an attempt to represent the results at which the author had arrived in his physiological investigations, by symbols like those in use now in chemistry. For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 57, no. 1.
1740. (54.) De Ossibus Cranii, deque Ossificatione, et de Dura Matre (On the Bones of the Skull and Ossification, and the Dura Mater), in MS., 49 pages, folio.
On the cover of Codex 88, Swedenborg lays down the following plan for the prosecution of his investigations into the nature of the body and the soul:
"Homo proponit, Deus disponit.
(Man proposes, God disposes.)
1740. The brain.
1741. The muscles, glands, and nerves.
1742. The eye, ear, tongue, windpipe, and lungs.
1743. The remaining members or viscera of the body.
1744. The members devoted to generation.
1745. The causes of diseases.
1746. The passions and affections of the sensual mind (animus), and the mind proper (mens).
1747. The city of God (Civitas Dei)."
In agreement with this plan Swedenborg, in the beginning of 1740, after finishing the MS. of the OEconomia Regni Animalis, began to re-examine his Transactions on the Brain (no. 48 of the present Document), which he had written between 1735 and 1738; but instead of proceeding according to the synthetical method, as he had done in that work, he now approached his subject according to the analytical method from without. We accordingly find him engaged during the whole of January, 1740, in investigating the structure of the bones of the skull, and the nature of the dura mater. The results of these investigations, together with a daily record of his work, and constant references to his "Transactions on the Brain," constitute the work which we are now considering.
It consists of 150 numbered paragraphs, of which 24 on the bones of the skull are missing. The substance of these missing numbers seems, however, to have been embodied by the author in chapter 2 of Codex 55 (no. 56 of the present Document), which treats likewise of the bones of the skull in general.
We must regard as continuation of the present work the chapter on the sinuses of the dura mater, by which it is succeeded on leaves 25 and 26 of the original MS., although the numbered paragraphs are not continued in it; it contains constant references to Codex 65 (no. 48 of the present Document).
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 57, nos. 2 to 7.
1740. (55.) Philosophia Corpuscularis in Compendio (A summary of Corpuscular Philosophy), in MS., 1 page, folio. This is a most important summary of the corpuscular theory propounded by the author in the "Principles of Chemistry," (no. 28), and in the APrincipia." He states here clearly the number of the atmospheres, and species the particles which enter into the composition of the several metals and salts. And at the end he makes this memorable statement: "Hc vera sunt quia signum habeo--these things are true, because I have the sign," The particular sign to which Swedenborg here alludes is described in Document 208, p. 145.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 57, no. 12.
1740. (56, A.) Anatomia omnium partium Cerebri, Cerebelli, Medull oblongat et spinalis: et de morbis capitis (Anatomy of all the parts of the larger and lesser brains, of the prolonged and the spinal marrows; together with the diseases of the bend); in MS., 636 pages, folio.
This work is properly a re-cast in analytical order of the "Transactiones Tres de Cerebro," which were described under no. 48. A beginning of this re-cast, as we have shown, was made in no. 54, but in the present volume it is finished, and written out neatly for the press. The references from the old anatomists are almost all crossed out in no. 48 and transferred to the present volume. Its contents are minutely given in Document 309, Codex 55.
As to the object of the present work, it seems at first to have been intended by the author as a continuation of the OEconomia Regni Animalis (no. 52), which consists of Transactions I and III for among some prospectuses which are printed in Vol. VI of the photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg, pp. 349 to 353, there are several copies of what follows:
"Transaction III.
The brain and its members; the chemical laboratory of the brain; its organs.
"Transaction IV.
1. The lesser brain.
2. The medulla oblongata.
3. The spinal marrow.
4. The pathology, or the diseases, of the head.
"Transaction V.
(For contents of this Transaction, see no. 57.)
Transaction VI."
(For contents of this Transaction, see no. 67.)
The volume which we are now discussing embraces Transactions III and IV of this prospectus.
Afterwards, in 1742, the author embodied the subjects which were to be discussed in Transactions III to VI in the general plan of his Regnum Animale, the original form of which is preserved in several prospectuses which are printed in Vol. VI of the Photolitographed MSS. of Swedenborg, pp. 349 to 353. The same principle of arrangement prevails in all these prospectuses, though some contain more details than others. The following serves as a specimen:
"Volume I.
Anatomy of the body, of all its viscera, the generative organs, and those of the five senses, 130 to 140 sheets.
"Volume II.
Anatomy of all the parts of the larger and lesser brain, of the prolonged and the spinal marrow, together with the diseases of the head, 120 sheets. [This is the title which we have selected for the work now under consideration.]
"Volume III.
Introduction to rational psychology, or three doctrines, by the aid of which we are led from the material organism of the body to the knowledge of the soul which is immaterial. These doctrines are the doctrine of forms, of order, and degrees, and of correspondences and representations; to which is added the doctrine of modifications. Further, the medullary fibre of the brain, the nervous fibre of the body, and the muscular fibres, 100 to 120 sheets.
"Volume IV.
Rational psychology, or the external and internal sense, imagination, memory, and the affections of the natural mind; the understanding or thought and will, and the affections of the interior mind. Finally, the soul, its state in the body, its immortality, and its state after the life of the body; to which is added a concordance of the various systems [of the human soul and its intercourse with the body], 120 sheets."
In this plan of the Regnum Animale the work which we are now considering, was to constitute Volume II.
For further particulars respecting the contents of this volume, see Document 310, Codex 55.
1740. (56, B.) Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson says, in his biography of Swedenborg (p. 39), "It is recorded in one list of Swedenborg's works, and we have obtained collateral evidence of the fact, that he published Two Dissertations on the Nervous Fibre and the Nervous Fluid, at Rome in 1740; yet it is hardly probable that he had returned to Rome in that year, and accordingly his authorship of such a publication is doubtful. Nevertheless it is easiest to account for the assertion by supposing its truth; and certainly the title of the work bears a Swedenborgian aspect."
The editor of these Documents was instructed by the "American Document Committee," to whose zeal the present collection of Documents respecting the life and character of Swedenborg is mainly due, to establish, if possible, the truth on this matter. One of the editor's aims in starting on a tour to Italy in 1869 was, accordingly, to endeavour to possess himself of a copy of the book in question. He first made a thorough bibliographical exploration for the purpose of testing its existence The only anatomical work published in Rome in 1740, which bore in its title a similarity to the one attributed to Swedenborg, he found to be the following, which was noticed in Haller's Bibliotheca Anatomica for 1774 and1777, viz., "Dissertationes de febribus, una de secretione fluidi nervorum, ipsius indole, motu ac usibus, Rom, 1740, 4to. Edidit Felix Rossetti." The first of these dissertations, it is true, treats de febribus, while the subject of the work ascribed to Swedenborg, is de fibris; yet as in the second dissertation, in both instances, the nervous fluid is discussed, and as there is such a great similarity between the words febribus and fibris, rendering it probable that they were mistakenly used for one another; besides, as both works purport to have been printed in Rome in 1740, and as the work as described by Haller was evidently an anonymous publication of which Felix Rossetti was the publisher, the editor considered himself to be on the track of the right book.
He commenced his search after the above publication in Bologna, in the famous Library of the University, and afterwards continued it in Florence in the Biblioteca Laurenzia and Magliabechiana, and in Rome in the Biblioteca Angelica and Casanatensis.
In Rome, through the kindness of a resident German physician, Dr. Erhardt, he had, besides, the assistance of one of the foremost Italian physicians who had himself one of the largest surgical libraries in Italy. Yet all in vain; the anonymous treatise published in Rome in 1740 by Felix Bossetti could not be discovered anywhere.--One day while he was discussing the volume in question with the Librarian in the Palazzo Corsini, this gentleman suggested that Felix Rossetti was perhaps not the publisher, but the writer of the book. Of this they very soon had a satisfactory proof; for in the Corsini Library they found a little treatise written by Felice Roseti, and entitled: Memorie ragionate sulla necessit che hanno i grandi Ospedali, Napoli, 1744; in which was discussed the importance of large hospitals. Still, even with this additional information, the editor could not discover the book in question in any of the libraries in Rome. In Naples, in the large Biblioteca Nazionale, formerly the Biblioteca Borbonica, he found at last not the identical volume which he was searching for, but another volume written by the same Felix Rossetti on a kindred subject, called, Sistema Nuovo intorno all Anima pensante e alla Circolazione degli Spiriti animali, del Signor Felice Rossetti, medico di Giuvennazzo nella Puglia al Signor Cavalier Antonio Vallisnieri (A new system concerning the thinking soul and the circulation of the animal spirits, by Pelice Rossetti, physician at Giuvenazzo in Apulia, addressed to Signor Cavalier Antonio Vallisnieri), Venezia, 1731. In this treatise the author contends that the meninges are the seat of the thinking soul, and he proves the circulation of the animal spirits from the nerves through the membranes. If now Felix Rossetti treated in 1731 on "the circulation of the animal spirits through the nerves," we are quite justified in assuming that the same Felix Rossetti could have written in 1740 on "fevers and the nervous fluid," especially if in 1724 he wrote again on "the necessity of having large hospitals."
In addition to all this it must be remembered that Swedenborg left home on February 15, 1739 (see Document 206, p. 128), and that in May 1739 he arrived in Paris, (as appears from Document 124, Vol. I, p. 362;) and from Paris he proceeded to Amsterdam, where "on December 27, 1739, exactly at twelve o'clock," he finished writing his OEconomia Regni Animalis, which was published there in 1740 and 1741, while he returned to Sweden in 1740 (see Document 163, Vol. I, p. 456).
These facts are proof positive, that Swedenborg was not in Rome in 1740, and therefore could not have published a book there.
From the whole of this it follows that the Two Dissertations on the Nervous Fibre [i. e. on Fevers] and the Nervous Fluid, which were published in Rome in 1740, and which were attributed to Swedenborg, were not written by him, but by Felix Rossetti, a physician of Giuvenazzo (Juvenatii) in Puglia (i. e. Apulia).
1740. (56, C.) Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson says further in his biography of Swedenborg, p. 39, "Sprengel, in his History of Medicine, (the French translation by Journal, Vol. IV., p. 396,) mentions a work which he supposes to be Swedenborg's, viz., Dilucidationes de Origine Anim et Malo Hereditario, 8vo., Stockholm, 1740. As we have not been able to meet with these Thoughts on the Origin of the Soul and Hereditary Evil, we cannot say what intrinsic evidence they may present of his authorship. It is likely that he returned to Stockholm during this year."
Joh. Bjrnstjerna,299 in the MS. bibliography of Swedenborg's writings, which he prepared in l787, and which is now preserved in the Royal Library in Stockholm, describes this publication as follows: "Anonymi dilucidationes uberiores ardu doctrin de Origine Anim et Malo hreditario, quam Leibnitzius in Theodica primum tradidit (Additional Elucidations of the difficult doctrine respecting the Origin of the Soul and Hereditary Evil, which was first explained by Leibnitz in his 'Theodicea,') editio altera priori auctior et correctior, (second enlarged and improved edition,) Holmi sumptibus auctoris, (published in Stockholm at the expense of the author), two parts, 1740; Part I, pp. 110; Part II, pp. 48, 4to." Bjrntjerna adds, ASwedenborg is mentioned as the author of this work in a MS. consisting of 3 volumes, 4to, bearing the title: "Bibliotheca illustris, frfattadt af framledne Lagman Apelblad" 300 (Bibliotheca illustris, written by the late Judge Apelblad).
Although the editor of these Documents had no opportunity of examining the book in question himself, the Royal Librarian, Mr. Klemming, with whom he had a conversation on the subject, denied emphatically that Swedenborg was its author. Besides, Swedenborg returned home, after an absence of nearly four years and a half, on November 3, l740, and it is scarcely credible that immediately on returning home he should have written and published the above work, especially as he had then still in hand the publication of his great work, the Aconomia Regni Animalis," which was published in 1740 and 1741.
1740 and 1741. (57.) Introductio ad Psychologiam Rationalem, cujus hc prima pars de fibra, de tunica arachnoidea, et de morbis fibrarum agit (Introduction to Rational Psychology, the first part of which treats of the fibre, the arachnoid tunic and the diseases of the fibres), in MS., 366 pages, 4to.
This work constituted originally a portion of Transaction V mentioned in no. 56, A. The complete synopsis of this Transaction, as contained on p. 351 of Vol. VI of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg, is as follows:
"TRANSACTION V.
Introduction to Rational Psychology.
The cortical substance.
The medullary substance of the brain, and the nervous substance of the body.
The arachnoid tunic.
The doctrine of order and degrees, as well as of society.
The doctrine of forms.
The doctrine of correspondences and representations.
The doctrine of modifications.
Ontology or fundamental philosophy."
The above work which we denominate Part I of this "Introduction to Rational Psychology, is constituted by Sections I, II, and III of Codex 74 (Document 309), which treat of the following subjects:
1. The cortical and medullary substances of the brain.
2. The name of the fibres, end the nerves compounded therefrom in the body.
3. The doctrine of forms.
4. The arachnoid tunic.
5. The diseases of the fibres.
By comparing the contents of the MS. volume to which we here refer with those of Transaction V, which was entitled by Swedenborg "Introduction to Rational Psychology," it, is very evident that they harmonize so far, that the MS. volume contains the greater part of Transaction V, and in bet its first portion, with the addition of a chapter on the diseases of the fibres; so that we consider ourselves fully justified in entitling the volume "Introduction to Rational Psychology, Part I.
The order of subjects was inverted by the author, when he subsequently embodied Transaction V in the first plan of his Regnum Animale, where it appears as Vol. III (see no 56, A). A full synopsis of the contents of this prospective volume of the Regnum Animale is given in the Photo-lithographed MSS., Vol. VI, p. 360, in this form:
"VOLUME III.
Introduction to Psychology.
1. Preface: How an introduction to psychology is best effected.
2. Doctrine of forms and modifications.
3. Doctrine of order, degrees, and society.
4. Doctrine of representations.
5. The cortical substance in general.
6. The medullary fibre of the brain in particular, and the nervous fibre of the body.
7. The arachnoid tunic.
8. The motive fibre.
9. The signification of philosophical terms, or ontology."
In another synopsis of Volume III, on the same page, it is stated that Aa treatise on the medullary, nervous, and motive fibre is subjoined, that the above doctrines may be exhibited in their application."
In a later plan of the Regnum Animale, which is discussed in the preface to the printed work, the title, "Introduction to Rational Psychology," is limited to the part in which the above-mentioned doctrines were to be treated, and the treatise on the substances of the brain and the nature of the fibre is formed into a distinct part by itself. Still, in speaking of a work written in 1740, it seems best to call it by the title which its author applied to it then, and not by that by which he distinguished it three or four years later.
The doctrine of order and degrees, which was embodied in the original prospectus of Transaction V, was treated in full in the OEconomia Regni Animalis, under the head of "Introduction to Rational Psychology.
The doctrine of correspondences and representations is contained in no. 59, and the chapter on ontology in no. 68.
The full contents of the present part are given in Document 310, Codex 74, where also further particulars respecting it may be found.
This volume was published in London in 1847, under the editorship of Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, its OEconomia Regni Animalis, Transactio III.
There is no doubt that Swedenborg throughout the whole of this work makes constant reference to "Transactions I and II," or Vols. I and II of the OEconomia, &c. We believe also that it was written while the author was seeing the latter work through the press in 1740 and 1741. Yet as he about that time prepared the plan of his Regnum Animale, and as he intended to absorb into that work all that he had written after 1739 on the nature of the soul and body, it seems as if the above work ought to be classed with the Regnum Animale, and not with the OEconomia.
A portion of this treatise was announced by Swedenborg himself for publication in 1742, under the title, The Medullary fibre of the Brain, and the Nervous fibre of the Body. See Document 201, Vol. I, p. 555.
As to the precise place which this treatise occupies in the amended plan of the Regnum Animale, which was published in 1744, see no. 71.
1710 and 1741. (58.) On the Declination of the magnetic Needle; a controversy between Emanuel Swedenborg and Prof. Anders Celsius of Upsal. Read and discussed before the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm in 1740 and 1741.
The papers belonging to this controversy constitute Document 200 of the present collection. See Vol. I, pp. 565-585.
1741. (59.) Introduction ad Psychologiam Rationalem, cujus hc secunda pars de Doctrina Correspondentiarum et Reprsentationum agit (Introduction to Rational Psychology, Part II, treating of the Doctrine of Correspondences and Representations); in MS., 9 pages, folio.
This treatise was originally intended by the author to form a part of the Transaction V, spoken of in nos. 56, A, and 57, and it was included by him afterwards in Vol. III of the original plan of the Regnum Animale, as was likewise be seen by a reference to nos. 56, A, and 57. It consists first of a short preface, in which Swedenborg points out the difference between natural and spiritual language, and further of the following chapters:
1. Correspondence by harmony (correspondentia harmonica).
2. Correspondence by parables (correspondentia parabolica).
3. Correspondence by types (correspondential typica).
4. Correspondence by fables and dreams (correspondential fabulosa et somniorum).
5. Correspondence between human and Divine actions.
6. Representation in oracles.
7. Explanation of the Sacred Scripture.
The subject of correspondence in these chapters is studied entirely on the basis of Scripture; and the subject matter in a great measure consists of Scripture passages. This treatise evidently paved the way for the following, which was entitled by the author "A Hieroglyphic Key."
For further particulars respecting the above, see Document 310, Codex 36, no. 4.
1741. (60.) Clavis Hieroglyphica arcanorum naturalium et spiritualium per viam Reprsentationum et Correspondentiarum (A Hieroglyphic key to natural and spiritual mysteries by way of representations and correspondences); in MS., 48 pages, 4to.
This interesting treatise consists of 21 examples, in which the author first states some general propositions in respect to the world of nature, and the phenomena which are witnessed there, shows by correspondence how the same principles apply to the world of spirit. At the close of the work follows an index of correspondences.
A copy of the original Codex (no. 79 in Document 310) was taken by C. F. Nordenskjöld to England in 1783. This was printed by Robert Hindmarsh in 1784 at his own expense, under the above title. In 1792 he published an English translation prepared by himself; and in 1847 another translation, by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, was published by the Swedenborg Association.
1741. (61.) Concordantia Systematum Trium de Commercio Anim et Corporis (Concordance of the three systems concerning the intercourse between the Soul and, the Body), in MS., 44 pages, a fragment in 4to.
This treatise was announced by the author for publication in 1742 under the above title (see Document 201, Vol. I, p. 585). The title which it bears in the MS. itself is as follows: Transactio Prima de Anima et ejus et Corporis Harmonia in genere (Transaction I, concerning the Soul, and the Harmony between it and the Body in general.
After an address to the reader, in which the author gives the reason why he prefers to appear in public with several shorter treatises on the human soul (viz. nos. 61 to 65) rather than with one large work, he treats the following three points:
l. "The mind never reposes truly on any system concerning the intercourse and harmony between the mind and the body, if that system supposes an unknown and incomprehensible element." Two pages are missing in this chapter.
l. "The mind does not repose in the system of Prestablished Harmony, because it involves unknown, incomprehensible elements and occult qualities." This chapter is complete.
3. "The mind does not receive it for certain that the soul is a purely simple substance, unless it know precisely the kind of simple substance." Thirty-two pages are wanting in the middle of this article; and after continuing for eight more pages the rest of the MS. is wanting. For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 74, no. ix.
This treatise was printed by the Swedenborg association in Latin in a volume entitled, Opuscula Philosophica, which was issued in 1846 under the editorship of Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, and of which they published an English translation in 1847 bearing the title, Posthumous Tracts, under the same editorship.
1741. (62.) De Sanguine Rubro (The Red Blood), in MS., 24 pages, 4to.
This tract is introduced by the statement, that "the blood contains all organic forms from the primary spiritual to the ultimate angular, and in this respect is the compendium and complex of all the forms of nature." In 23 chapters the author first discusses the red blood and its globules, and then passes to a consideration of the purer blood, and finally of the purest, which is the "animal spirits."
It was evidently intended first as an introductory section to Transaction VI (see no. 67), where it was intended as section 4.
It was likewise printed in 1846, in the volume entitled Opuscula Philosophica (pp. 15 to 32), which appeared in the following year in English bearing the title, "Posthumous Tracts" (see no. 61).
For further particulars respecting the original MS. see Document 310, Codex 74, no. iv.
1741. (63.) De Spiritu Animali (The Animal Spirit), in MS., 24 pages, 4to.
This tract, which consists of 17 chapters, was likewise intended in the first place for Transaction VI, where it was intended to be section 3; see no. 67. It was announced for publication in 1742 (see Document 201, Vol. I, p. 585).
It was printed by the Swedenborg association in Latin, in 1846, in the volume entitled Opuscula Philosophica, pp. 33-48. In 1847 it was published in English as one of the "Posthumous Tracts." For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 74, no. v.
1741. (64.) De Sensatione, seu de Corporis Passione (Sensation, or the passion of the body), in MS., 11 pages, 4to. This tract, which is not complete, consists of thirteen chapters It treats of internal and external sensation, and describes the way by which impressions made on the external sensory organs are conveyed to the brain. It was intended originally to form section 5 of Transaction VII (see no. 67).
It was published in 1846 as one of the Opuscula Philosophica (pp. 58 to 69), and in 1847 appeared in an English translation as one of Swedenborg's "Posthumous Tracts" (see no. 61).
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 74, no. vi.
1741. (65.) De Orgine et Propagatione Anim (The origin and propagation of the Soul); in MS., 6 pages, 4to.
This constitutes another of those tracts which were published in 1846 by the Swedenborg Association under the title, Opuscula Philosophica, and which in the following year were published in an English translation as Swedenborg's "Posthumous Tracts."
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 74, no. vii.
1741. (66.) De Actione (Action), in MS., 30 pages, 4to.
In this dissertation, which consists of 35 chapters, the author treats first of the motive fibre, and the constitution of muscle, and then shows how by the action of the brain they are excited to motion; afterwards he draws a distinction between animal and rational action, and shows the influence that is exerted upon them by the will.
This dissertation also seems to have been intended originally by the author for Transaction VI (see no. 67), section 5 of which was to treat of sensation and motion. The subject of the motive or muscular fibre, however, was afterwards assigned by the author to Vol. III of the Regnum Animale (see the synopsis of Vol. III in nos. 56, A, and 57), which is identical with Transaction V in no. 57.
This also is one of the tracts published by the Swedenborg Association in 1846 under the title Opuscula Philosophica (pp. 65-87), and of which they published in 1847 an English translation in the "Posthumous Tracts."
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 74, no. viii.
1741 and 1742. (67.) Psychologia rationis (Rational Psychology), in MS. 234 pages, folio.
The treatise entitled by Swedenborg Psychologia Rationalis, was originally identical with Transaction VII mentioned in no. 56, A, the contents of which are given in several prospectuses printed in Vol. VI of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg (pp. 351 and 352), as follows:
"Transaction VI.
1. The body in general.
2. The soul in general.
3. The animal spirit.
4. The blood.
5. Sensation and motion.
6. Imagination, memory.
7. The rational mind, or the understanding and will.
8. The soul in detail, and its operations; or the state of the soul in the body.
9. Concordance of the systems treating of the intercourse between the soul and the body.
10. The death of the body and the immortality of the soul.
11. The state of the soul after the death of the body.
12. The society of souls, or heaven.
13. Divine Providence, predestination, fate, and fortune.
14. Appendix on the passions of the animal mind."
After Transactions III to VI had been embodied by Swedenborg in the original plan of his Regnum Animale (see no. 56, A), the Psychologia Rationalis appears there as Volume IV, with the following contents (see Vol. VI of Photo-lithographed MSS., pp. 360, 352, and 363):
"Volume IV.
1. A recapitulation of the state of the body.
2. External and internal sense.
3. Imagination and memory.
4. The animal mind and its affections.
5. The understanding and its parts.
6. The will.
7. The soul; its essence, name, and operations.
8. The intercourse between the soul and the body.
9. The state of the soul in the body.
10. The state of the soul after the death of the body.
Such are on the whole the contents of the MS. volume which we are now discussing; and from this it appears that some subjects which were included in the plan of Transaction VI, were left out in the prospectus of Volume IV; and they were left out, because the author, before preparing Volume IV, had discussed them in separate treatises. These subjects are as follows:
"3. The Animal Spirit," which is discussed in no. 63; "4. The Blood," which is treated in no. 62; "5. Motion," which is discussed in the treatise on "Action," no. 68; and lastly, "9. Concordance of the systems treating of the intercourse between the soul and the body, which is treated in no. 61.
The only additional chapter, which was promised in Transaction VI, and which was left out in Volume IV, is: "13. Divine Providence, predestination, fate, and fortune. A work bearing a somewhat similar title was announced by the author for publication in 1742, viz. "divine Prudence, Predestination, Fate, Fortune, and Human Prudence," (see Document 201, Vol. I, p. 585). That Swedenborg really wrote a work bearing this title appears from the last chapter of the present work, which is entitled "Divine Providence," and where the author says at the close, "Concerning Providence, fate, fortune, predestination, and human prudence we have already treated; what has been said there may be seen and added here." This work, however, has not been preserved among the author's MSS.
As regards the present work, the Psycholgia rationalis in particular, it was published in 1849 by Dr. Im. Tafel as Part VII of the Regnum Animale, and also under the special title De Anima. Its contents are as follows:
1. A preface, explaining the genuine method of investigating the human soul, pp. 1-3.
2. The simple fibre, which is the rudiment of the human body, and yet independent of all the attributes of space and time, pp. 3-6.
3. On sensation, intellection, and perception, pp. 7-23.
4. The senses of touch, taste, and smell, pp. 23-36.
5. On hearing and sight, pp. 36 to 50.
6. Imagination and the memory, pp. 50-57.
7. The pure intellect, pp. 57-65.
8. Intellection, cogitation, reasoning, and judgment, pp. 65-75.
9. The intercourse between the soul and the body, pp. 75-84.
10. Harmonies and the affections arising thence, pp. 84-89.
11. The sensual mind (animus) and its affections in particular, viz. gladness, sadness, bodily and animal loves, hatred, love of self pride, contempt of self, hope and despair, love of immortal fame, the love of worldly and bodily things, timidity and cowardice, avarice, prodigality and liberality, good-naturedness and pity, fear, bravery and intrepidity, indignation and anger, fury and zeal, patience and impatience, shame, envy, revenge, misanthropy, cruelty and clemency, intemperance and luxury, temperance and parsimony, pp. 89-134.
12. Distinction between the sensual (animus) and rational minds, pp. 134 to 143.
13. The formation of the rational mind and its affections, viz. the love of understanding and becoming wise, the love of knowing hidden things and admiration, the love of knowing the future, the love of truth and of principles, the love of good and evil, the affirmative and negative states, conscience, the love of virtues and vices, pp. 143-163.
14. Definition of the sensual, rational, and spiritual minds, p. 163.
15. The rational mind is properly called man, pp. 165, 166.
16. Free-will, or the election of moral good and evil, pp. 166-183.
17. The will and its freedom, and its relation to the understanding, pp. 183-190.
18. Conversation, human prudence, simulation and dissimulation, cunning, malice and sincerity, justice and equity, pp. 190-196.
19. Knowledge, intelligence, wisdom, pp. 196-198.
20. The causes by which the rational mind is changed, i. e. either perverted or perfected, pp. 198-201.
2l. Spiritual loves or the loves of the soul, viz. the love of the Supreme Being, the love of the neighbour as of oneself, the love of society or of several out of oneself, the love of being near to the subject loved, the love of excelling in happiness, power, wisdom, the love of propagating heavenly society by natural means, the love of one's body, the love of immortality, spiritual zeal, the love of propagating the kingdom, and the city, of God, pp. 201-212.
22. The derivation of corporeal from spiritual loves, and their concentration in the rational mind, p. 212.
23. Pure or Divine Love regarded in itself, p. 213.
24. The influx of the sensual mind and its affections into the body, and of the body into the sensual mind, pp. 214-217.
25. Influx of the rational into the sensual mind, and by means of that into the body, and likewise of the sensual into the rational mind, pp. 217-219.
26. Influx of the spiritual mind or the soul into the sensual mind (animus), and vice versa of the sensual mind into the soul, p. 219.
27. Influx of the spiritual loves of the soul into the rational mind, and vice versa, p. 220.
28. On inclination and temperaments, pp. 291-224.
29. On death, pp. 224-228.
30. The immortality of the soul, pp. 288-233.
31. The state of the soul after the death of the body, pp. 233-243.
A break of two folio pages occurs here in the original MS., making chapters 31 and 32 imperfect.
32. Heaven or the society of blessed souls, [this title is suggested by Dr. Im. Tafel,] pp. 243-247.
33. Hell or the society of unhappy souls, pp. 247-249.
34. Divine Providence.
The work closes with the suggestion of a universal science or a science of sciences, which embraces all the other sciences. As a contribution to that science the author points to his "Key to the interpretation of natural and spiritual things by way of correspondences and representations," This key is no 60. in the present Document, entitled Clavis Hieroglyphica (Hieroglyphic Key). The original MS. of this work is contained in Codex 54 (see Document 310).
1742. (68.) Vocum philosophicarum significatio vel Ontologia (The signification of philosophical terms, or Ontology), in MS., 21 pages, folio.
This treatise was originally intended by the author as a part of his "Introduction to Rational Psychology" (see prospectus of Transaction V in no. 57), although it was written by him as an appendix to his "Rational Psychology," no. 67. The title which we have chosen for it will be found on p. 350 of Vol. VI of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS.
The subjects treated of are as follows: 1. Form and formal cause, 2. Figure, 3. Organ and structure, 4. State and changes of state, 5. Substance, 6. Matter and the material, 7. Extension and the extended, 8. Continuity and contiguity, 9. Body and bodies, 10. Essence and essentials, 11. Attribute, 12. Predicate, 13. Subject, 14. Affection, 15. Contingencies, 16. Modes and modification.
These subjects the author treats by first giving the definitions of these terms by the philosophers, especially Wolf and Dupleix, and afterwards adding his own views.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 54, no. 2.
1742 and 1743. (69.) Anatomia corporis, cujus partes secund et terti de membris genitalibus, et de organis quinque sensuum agunt (The Anatomy of the human body, Parts II and III, treating of the generative organs, and the organs of the five senses), in MS., 269 pages, folio.
Previous to the elaboration of the present treatise (and thus before 1742) Swedenborg styled his contributions to the Regnum Animale "Transactions," as appears from the preface to his "Rational Psychology," no. 67, where he refers to his "Introduction to Rational Psychology, no. 57, as "Transaction V." When he came to treat of the organs of the body in general, he changed this order, and arranged his materials for the Regnum Animale into four large volumes, a synopsis of which is given in no. 56, A.
By a reference to this synopsis it appears that a treatise bearing the title, "The Anatomy of the body, of all its viscera, the generative organs, and the organs of the five senses, was to constitute Volume I of the original Regnum Animale. The above work constitutes Parts II and III of that volume, so far as they were prepared by the author in 1742 and 1743.
Part I, which treated of the viscera of the abdomen and thorax, was recast by the author in 1744, and printed at the Hague in that year.
The first page of the MS. codex of Parts II and III is marked with 1111, i. e. four l's, which means that it begins with the seventy-ninth sheet of the MS.; the MS. not being marked according to pages, but according to sheets, some of which contain only two, but most of them fear pages. The letters of the alphabet are used to designate the number of the sheets; four l's meaning that the letter 1 has been used four times, i. e. that the alphabet consisting of twenty-three letters had been used three times in full, and the fourth time as far as the letter 1. This serves to give an idea of the extent of the MS. of the 22 chapters which composed the original Part I.
The contents of the unpublished portion of "Volume I" of the original Regnum Animale, are as follows:
PART I. Chapter 33 on the periosteum, and chapter 24 on the female breast. These chapters belong properly to Part I.
These two chapters were printed in 1849 by Dr. Im. Tafel as the Regnum Animale, Part VI, Section I. In 1852 they were translated by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson into English, and were appended by him to his English translation of the work on the "Generative Organs."
PART II, entitled THE GENERATIVE ORGANS (Organa Generationis), pp. 185.
A. The male Generative Organs (Organa in mare).
1. The spermatic arteries.
2. The testicles, epididymides, &c.
3. The scrotum.
4. The vasa deferentia.
5. The vesicul seminales.
6. The prostate gland.
7. The urethra.
8. The penis and corpora cavernosa.
9. The male semen.
B. The female generative organs (Mulierum Organa).
1. The external generative organs of the female.
2. The uterus.
3. The ovaries.
4. The Fallopian tubes.
5. Further remarks on the uterus.
6. The uterine placenta.
7. The chorion, amnios, and liquor amnii.
8. The umbilical cord.
9. The state of the embryo in its initial stages considered on general principles.
The treatise on the "Generative Organs," constituted chapters 27 to 44 of "Volume I" of the original Regnum Animale. We call it Part II, because, in the table of contents of that volume, published on p. 349 of Vol. VI of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg, this treatise is placed immediately after that treating on the organs of the abdomen and thorax, while that on the organs of sense there constitutes Part Ill.
PART II was printed by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1849, as the Regnum Animale, Part VI, Section 2. It was also translated by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson into English in 1852, and published under the title "The Generative Organs."
PART III. THE ORGANS OF SENSE (Organa Sensus), 68 pages.
In Volume I of the original Regnum Animale, the author treated only on the senses of hearing and sight, the section on the ear and hearing constituting chapter 25, and that on the eye and sight chapter 26, of that volume. This agrees with the original plan which the author sketched for himself in 1739, after finishing the MS. for the OEconomia, &c.; see Document 313, no. 54. Neither of the above chapters is complete in the MS. codex; of the chapter on hearing the end is missing, and of the chapter on sight both the beginning and the end.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 53, no. 2.
To this part may be added a chapter on the skin, its miliary glands, and the organ of touch, consisting of 11 pages, which is appended to no. 66, A, in the original MS. codex, and thus seems to have been written in 1740; see Document 310, Codex 95, no. 3, where further particulars respecting it may he found.
1743. (70.) Swedenborg's Digest of Swammerdam's278 "Biblia Natur," in MS., 79 pages, folio.
This digest of Swammerdam is in reality a treatise on comparative anatomy and physiology. In its preparation the author generally quoted first Swammerdam's experience, and then made it the basis of his inductions. His own additions in the original MS. are all preceded by N. B. (Nota Bene).
The subjects treated of are as follows: 1. Insects in the chrysalis state, 2. The loose, 3. The scorpion, 4. Snails, 5. The crawfish, 6. The water-scorpion, 7. The ephemera, 8. The stag-beetle, 9. The xylophagan, 10. The gnat, 11. Bees, l2. The hydrocantharus, 13. The butterfly and the changes of the caterpillar, 14. The larva of the azylus fly, 15. The maggot, 16. Frogs and tadpoles, 17. The cuttle fish, 18. The four orders of changes in insects.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 53, no. 6.
1743 and 1744. (71.) REGNUM ANIMALE anatomice, physice, et philosophice perlustratum. Pars I. De visceribus abdominis seu de organis regionis inferioris; Pars II. De visceribus thoracis seu de organis regionis superioris (The Animal Kingdom considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically. Part I. The viscera of the abdomen, or the organs of the inferior region; Part II. The viscera of the thorax, or the organs of the superior region). Published at the Hague, by Adrian Blyvenburg, in 1744, Part I, pp. 438; Part II: pp. 286, 4to.
In a letter, which Swedenborg addressed to the College of Mines in 1743 (Document 164, B), and in which he begs that body to support his application to the King for leave of absence, we read as follows: "A few months ago I applied most humbly to His Royal Majesty for gracious leave of absence, to make a journey abroad on my own resources, for the purpose of seeing through the press a work, which is the continuation and end of one which I had begun and promised." And again we read, "Ever since my return [in 1740] I have in addition to my official duties constantly laboured to accomplish this work, and I have completed it so far, that, after collecting some necessary information in the libraries abroad, I shall be able to publish it at once.
At the close of his letter he continues, "With regard to the time that will be required, I cannot determine any thing, inasmuch as the work to be published will amount to about 500 sheets, and the despatch with which this can be done will depend on the publisher and. printer.
The work to which Swedenborg alludes here is his Regnum Animale, of which he published Parts I and II at the Hague in 1744; and from the letter to the College of Mines on this subject which we have just quoted, it appears that the MS. of this work had been "so far completed [in Sweden], that after collecting some necessary information in the libraries abroad, he would be able to publish it at once."
From Note 163 it appears that after arriving in Holland towards the close of August 1743, he spent the months of September, October, and November in Amsterdam, and perhaps also in the neighbouring university of Leyden, in order "to collect in the libraries there some necessary information," and prepare his MS. for the press; and in December he arrived at the Hague to superintend the printing of it.
In the form in which he had brought his MS. from Sweden it consisted of the four large volumes of which a full prospectus is given in no. 56, A. The titles of the several volumes were as follows:
"Volume I: The Anatomy of the body, of all its viscera, the generative organs, and the organs of the five senses.
Volume II: The anatomy of all the parts of the larger and lesser brains, of the prolonged and the spinal marrows, together with the diseases of the head.
Volume III: Introduction to Rational Psychology.
Volume IV: Rational Psychology.
In Holland Swedenborg enlarged the plan of his Regnum Animale by embodying in it the substance of his OEconomia Regni Animalis; he also broke up the original arrangement in four volumes, and issued instead the following prospectus of seventeen parts, which is printed in the preface to Part I, as published at the Hague in 1744:
"Part I. The viscera of the abdomen.
" II. The viscera of the thorax.
" III. The heart, the arteries, the veins, and the blood.
" IV. The genital members of males.
" V. The genital members of females: and the formation of the ftus in the uterus.
" VI. The organs of the external senses.
" VII. The cerebrum, and the internal sensoria.
" VIII. The cerebellum, medulla oblongata, and medulla spinalis.
" IX. The cortical and the medullary substances of the cerebrum; the nervous fibre; and the motive fibre of the body the animal spirit.
Part X. The organism of animal motion.
" XI. The affections of the body, that is to say, diseases, particularly those of the head or cerebrum.
Part XII. An introduction to rational psychology: namely, the doctrine of forms; of order and degrees; of series and society; of influx; of correspondence and representation; also the doctrine of modification.
Part XIII. action. External sense. Internal sense. Imagination. Memory.
" XIV. The affections and disorders of the animus or sensual mind.
" XV. The intellect or thought, and will. Instinct. The affections of the rational mind.
" XVI. The soul, and its state in the body, intercourse, affection, immortality. Its state after the life of the body.
Part XVII. Concordance of systems respecting the soul, its nature and intercourse."
Parts I and II, viz. those treating of the viscera of the abdomen and of the thorax, were published in agreement with the original programme, at the Hague; yet in comparing the contents of the published parts with those given in the prospectus on p. 349 of Vol. VI of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg, two entirely new chapters, viz., those "on the glands in general," and "on the diaphragm'" are found to he added, together with the epilogues at the end of Parts I and II; the arrangement also of some of the chapters is found to be changed; so that it becomes very evident that Swedenborg on arriving in Holland submitted those parts of the Regnum Animale which were published there, to a most careful revision. This explains also an otherwise unaccountable confusion in the numbering of the paragraphs of Part I; for after arriving at no, 27, with which chapter XIII closes, in the beginning of chapter XIV he returns to no. 217, so that by and bye no. 277 is reached a second time, and all the intermediate numbers occur twice in the work. This can only be explained on the assumption that the new matter which was added to Part I, amounting to sixty paragraphs, was overlooked by the author when in the course of printing the work he returned to the original MS., which he had prepared in Sweden.
In the English translation of the work this confusion has been avoided; whence results a discrepancy in the numbering of the paragraphs in the Latin and English editions.
The progress which the author made in the revision of Parts I and II of his Regnum Animale is recorded in his private Diary for 1744 (Document 209), as appears from Note 164, no. iv.
The contents of Parts I and II as revised by the author and printed at the Hague are as follows:
"Part I. Prologue.
Chap. I. The tongue.
" II. The lips, the mouth, the palate, and the salivary glands.
" III. The pharynx, the sophagus, and their glands.
" IV. The stomach and its orifices.
" V. The intestines.
" VI. The mesentery and the lacteals.
" VII. The thoracic duct and the lymphatics.
" VIII. The glands generally.
" IX. The liver and the gall-bladder.
" X. The pancreas.
" XI. The spleen.
" XII. The omentum.
" XIII. The succenturiate kidneys.
" XIV. The kidneys and the ureters.
" XV. The urinary bladder.
" XVI. The peritonoeum.
Epilogue.
Part II.
Chap. I. The nose and the uvula.
A II. The larynx and the epiglottis.
A III. The trachea.
A IV. The lungs.
A V. The pleura, the mediastinum, and the pericardium.
A VI. The thymus gland.
A VII. The diaphragm.
Epilogue."
An index of these two parts of the Regnum Animale was left by the author in MS., (see Document 309, Codex 38, no. 2). It was Photo-lithographed in Vol. VI, of the Photo-lithographed MSS. of Swedenborg, pp. XI to XXXVII.
The Regnum Animale was reviewed in the Acta Eruditorum, published in Leipzig, for the year 1747, p. 307.
It was also noticed in Haller's Bibliotecha Anatomica, and in Sprengel's Historia Medicin.
An English translation of the two parts above-named was prepared by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, and published in 1843 and 1844, in two volumes, entitled "The Animal Kingdom, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically." A stereotype edition of this work was soon after published in America also in two volumes.
1743 and 1744. (72.) Swedenborg's Private Diary for 1743 and 1744; in MS., pp. 101, 16mo.
This Diary was first published in 1859 under the title, Swedenborg's Drmmar, l744 (Swedenborg's dreams, 1744). The text of this Diary constitutes Documents 207 and 208, and 209. Its history, and the place it occupies in Swedenborg's biography, are fully discussed in the Introduction to Document 208, pp. 134 et seq. Its authenticity is proved in Notes 149, 160 to 166.
1744. (73.) De Sensu Communi, ejusque influxu in animam, et hujus reactione (On sense in general, its influx into the soul, and the reaction of the latter), in MS., pp. 200, folio.
After finishing Part II of the Regnum Animale, according to the programme laid down in Part I (see no. 71, p. 935), the author ought to have taken up Part III which was to treat of the heart, the arteries, the veins, and the blood; or as this subject had been fully discussed by him in Transaction I of the OEconomia Regni Animalis, published in 1740, he ought to have passed to Parts IV and V, which were to treat of the genital members of males and females, and the formation of the embryo in the uterus, but instead of doing so he skipped over Parts III, IV, and V, and took up at once Part VI of his programme, which was to treat of the organs of external senses. His reasons for doing so he states in full in the prologue to the above work to the composition of which he devoted the months of May and June 1744, during which time he left the Hague, and travelled to London.
In the prologue to the above work he says in no. 3, "It has been promised that the heart, the arteries, and the blood would be discussed next, and afterwards the organs of generation of both sexes, as well as the conception and formation of the embryo. The subject, however, of the heart, the arteries, the veins, and the blood has not only been treated in the work which I have called OEconomia Regni Animalis, but upon mature reflection I also find that I am not permitted to approach this subject now at once; for all the parts of the body have to furnish the information of what the blood is.
In order to examine the nature of the blood all the provinces and coolers of the body whither the blood runs have to be examined, viz. the viscera of the abdomen and the thorax, and especially also the brain.... Wherefore unless it is first known what the brain, the composite and simple fibre, what the animal spirit and the soul are, we speak of things that are unknown.... The same reason suggests itself in the case of the explanation of the genital members, and the formation of the ftus in the utelus; for the genital organs, especially of men, ale not devoted to the blood, but to the spirits which pervade the fibres ... wherefore it appears to me that I am unable to explain the genital organs before I have declared what the brain, the fibre, what the spirit and the soul are. This, therefore, is the reason why I have to postpone also the discussion of these members." Impelled by the above lessons Swedenborg, therefore, after finishing Parts I and II of the Regnum Animale passed at once to the consideration of Part VI. This resulted in the composition of the above volume which must, however, be considered as a mere first draught of Part VI, and as not intended for the public at large.
The MS. of this treatise constitutes a portion of Codex 58 of the Swedenborg MSS. It was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1848 as Part IV of the Regnum Animale. Its full contents are given in Document 310, Codex 58 (p. 559), to which we refer the reader for further particulars.
As this treatise wits written by the author after his spiritual eyes, at least in part, had been opened, and as it was merely a first cast, and not intended to go to the press, we find in it quite a number of annotations wherein he records his spiritual experience at that time. These experiences are collected in Note 164, nos. vi and vii.
The allusions to this treatise in the "Private Diary for 1744" (Document 209) are contained in Note 164, no. ix, A and B.
1744. (74.) De Musculis Faciei et Abdominis (The Muscles of the face and abdomen), in MS., pp. 13, folio.
This treatise on the muscles is bound up in the original MS. with no. 73, whence we may be allowed to conclude that it was prepared by the author about the same time. The subjects treated of are as follows.
1. The muscles of the face in general.
2. The muscles of the upper part of the face.
3. The muscles of the middle part.
4. The muscles which are of use to the nose.
5. The muscles of the external ear.
6. The muscles by which the lip is drawn upwards.
7. The muscles of the lower part of the face.
8. The muscles of the lower jaw.
9. The muscles which move the head on the spinal column.
10. The muscles which move the head on the spinal column.
11. The muscles of the abdomen.
12. Their uses.
For further particulars respecting this treatise, see Document 310, Codex 58.
1744. (75.) Experimenta Physica et Optica (Physical and optical experiments); in MS., pp. 6, folio.
This tract in the original Codex (no. 58) constitutes a part of no. 73, with which it is, however, not necessarily connected. It treats of the following subjects:
1. Physical experiments of Desaguille and Hawksbee, with Swedenborg's inductions; also Newton's three rules of motion.
2. Experiments and rules in optics, derived from Robert Smith, Newton, Hooks, Descartes, and others; with Swedenborg's inductions.
3. The colours of the rainbow; a description of the facts, with Swedenborg's inductions in respect to colours and their origin
4. The eye and the rays of light.
5. The ideas derived from sight and touch.
The MS. is photo-lithographed in Vol, VI of the Swedenborg MSS., pp. 102 to 107.
1744. (76.) De Cerebro (On the Brain), in MS., pp. 43, folio.
On July 4, 1744, the author says in the Diary of that year, "This signifies that I have now finished writing on the senses in general and the operation of the interior faculties; which subject in the form in which I have sketched it [no. 73] cannot be [generally] comprehended; and that now I approach the following part which treats of the brain." See Document 209, p. 199.
As no. 73, which immediately precedes this treatise in the original MS. volume, was the first draught of Vol. III of the New Series of the Regnum Animale, so the present treatise was intended by the author as the first draught of Vol. IV of that same series. This volume, however, was never finished by the author.
The contents of this work, which is the third treatise on the Brain begun by the author, are described in Document 310, Codex 58, where also further particulars respecting it may be found.
In this work also, (which, in the form in which it has been preserved to us, was not intended by the author for the press,) there are sundry allusions to spiritual experiences which Swedenborg made during its composition. These are collected in Note 164, no. viii. The allusions to this work in the "Private Diary for 1744" (Document 209) are continued in the same Note in no. ix.
In this work also, (which, in the form in which it has been preserved to us, was not intended by the author for the press,) there are sundry allusions to spiritual experiences which Swedenborg made during its composition. These are collected in Note 164, no. viii. The allusions to this work in the "Private Diary for 1744" (Document 209) are contained in the same Note in no. ix.
1744 and 1745. (77.) REGNUM ANIMALE anatomice, physice, et philosophice perlustratum; cujus Pars III de Cute, Sensu Tactus, et Gustus; et de Formis Organicis in Genere agit (The Animal Kingdom, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically. Part III. The Skin, the Senses of Touch and Taste, and Organic Forms generally). London, 1745, (the publisher's name is not mentioned), pp. 169, 4to.
Concerning the elaboration of this Part of the Regnum Animale, which was never finished by the author, we read in the "Private Diary of 1744," (Document 209, no. 162), under date of August 1, as follows: "This signifies that I was led to my work on the senses, which I began writing [i. e. preparing for the press] to-day; and that I did not wish to be drawn away thereby from that which is more important." And in no. 163, on the same day, we read: "This signifies the work upon which I have now entered; the last was about the brain."
In note 164, no. ix, the progress which the author made in this work, is described by quotations from Document 209. From the same Document we also learn that on October 27, he ceased to work on the Regnum Animale, and entered on the preparation of his work on "The Worship and Love of God," (no. 78). See Document 209, no. 209.
The contents of Part III of the Regnum Animale as far as published by the author, are as follows.
"Part III. Prologue.
1. The skin and the sense of touch.
2. Organic forms generally.
3. The sense and sensorium of touch specifically.
4. The use of touch.
5. The sense of taste."
This part of the Regnum Animale was also translated into English by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, and published by him, together with Part II, as Vol. II of the English edition of this work.
If now we take a retrospect of all that has been thus far advanced concerning the genesis of the author's work on the Regnum Animale, we learn that there were three casts of that work made by him.
The first consisted of the four volumes, the contents of which are specified in no. 66, A, p. 921). The second embodies in the plan of the Regnum Animale the contents of the OEconomia, &c, and the combined materials of these two works are arranged by the author under the common name of Regnum Animale, in the seventeen parts specified in no. 71, p. 938.
The third retains the seventeen parts of the second, but the internal arrangement of these parts is very much changed: for in the second cast or "projection" the parts treating of the heart and the generative organs are placed before those treating of the senses, the brain, the nervous and motive fibre, and the animal spirit; while in the third cast they follow these parts. See no. 73, p. 941.
There are thus in existence three distinct series of the Regnum Animale, of which the first two agree in the order in which the subjects were to be treated; the second differing from the first only in this that the substance of the OEconomia, &c. is worked up into it. These two, therefore, are essentially one, and in distinction from the third they may be called the "Old Series" of the Regnum Animale. The whole of this "Old Series" was prepared by the author for the press, before he arrived in Holland in 1743.
The "New Series" he began after his arrival in Holland in 1743; but it was never extended by him beyond the beginning of Part IV.
It is of importance that these two series should be kept distinct, wherefore in what follows we shall point out the parts and ingredients of each of these two series:
THE NEW SERIES OF THE REGNUM ANIMALE.
Parts I and II, which were printed at the Hague in 1744, no. 51, p. 937. In their preparation the author worked up the materials furnished by Parts I and II of the "Old Series," retaining the greater part, re-writing part, and adding some new chapters.
The chapters on the periosteum and the female breast were not embodied by the author in Parts I and of the "New Series;" they constitute Part I of no. 69, p. 935.
Part III, treating on the senses. Of this part there are two different copies.
The first copy consists of the rough draught of the whole of Part III. It is no. 73, p. 941, and was entitled by the author, "On sense in general, its influx into the soul, and the reaction of the latter."
The second copy consists of Part III of the Regnum Animale, as published by the author in London in 1745. It is no. 77 of the present document, and is incomplete.
Part IV. On the Brain. Of this part we have the beginning of the rough draught, no. 76, p. 943.
THE OLD SERIES OF THE REGNUM ANIMALE.
Parts I and II, have been discussed above in the "New Series."
Part III, on the heart, the arteries, the veins, and the blood had been previously treated in the OEconomia Regni Animalis, Vol. I, no. 52, p. 915, and also in no. 62, p. 99.
Parts IV and V, on the genital organs of males and females, and the formation of the ftus in the uterus, constitute Part II of no. 69, p. 935.
Part VI, on the organs of the external senses. A portion of this was embodied by the author in Part III of the "New Series," as far as published by him. Portions of the sections on hearing and sight, and also on touch, constitute Part III of no. 69, p. 936. These same subjects are also discussed in no. 64, p. 930, and in no. 67, p. 932.
Parts VII and VIII, on the cerebrum, and the interior sensoria, the cerebellum, the medulla oblongata, and the medulla spinalis, constitute no. 56, A, p. 920. Materials for these parts are contained in no. 48, p. 914, and no. 54, p. 919.
Part IX, on the cortical and medullary substances of the cerebrum, the nervous fibre, and the motive fibre of the body; also on the animal spirit. The contents of this part are scattered over various writings of Swedenborg. The cortical substance of the brain is discussed in Transaction II of the OEconomia, &c. (nos. 69 to 207), see no. 52, p. 916; its medullary substance and the nervous fibre are treated of in no, 57, p. 925, and also in Transaction I of no. 48, p. 914; the motive fibre in particular is discussed in no. 66, p. 930; and the animal spirit in so. 63, p. 929, and also in Transaction III of no. 45, p. 914.
Part X is entitled the organism of animal motion. This part was not written out by the author in full; but materials for it are contained in no. 66, p. 930, and also in no. 74, p. 930, and likewise in the chapter on the diaphragm in the published part of the Regnum Animale, pp. 228 to 257.
Part XI, on the affections, that is to say, diseases of the body. This subject is treated at large in no. 56, p. 920, and also in no. 57, p. 928.
Part XII, entitled "An introduction to rational psychology: namely the doctrine of forms; of order and degrees; of series and society; of influx; of correspondence and representation; also the doctrine of modification."
The doctrine of order and degrees closes Transaction I of the OEconomia, &c. (nos. 580 to 632). The doctrine of forms is discussed in no. 57, p. 928 (nos. 257 to 273). The doctrine of correspondences and representations, however, is treated in no. 59, p. 927, in Transaction I of the OEconomia, &c. (nos. 648 and 649), and also in no. 60, p. 928.
Part XIII, on action, external sense, internal sense, imagination, memory. These subjects are discussed in no. 67, p. 932 (nos. 1 to 6).
Part XIV, on the affections and disorders of the animus or sensual mind; see no. 67, p. 932 (nos. 10 to 12).
Part XV, on the intellect or thought, and will; instinct; the affections of the rational mind, see no. 67. p. 932 (nos. 7, 8, 13 to 20).
Part XVI, on the soul, and its state in the body, intercourse, affection, immortality; its state after the life of the body, see no. 67, p. 932 (nos. 9, 21 to 33).
Part XVII is entitled, "Concordance of systems respecting the soul, its nature, and intercourse." A fragment of this part is contained in no. 61, p. 928.
1744 and 1745. (78.) De Cultu et Amore Dei (The Worship and Love of God), London, 1745.
Part I, ubi agitur de Telluris ortu, paradiso et vivario, tum de primogeniti seu Adami nativitate, infantia, et amore (Part I, which treats of the origin of the earth, the paradise, the nursery of beings, and afterwards of the birth, infancy, and love of the firstborn or Adam), pp. 120, 4to, without the publisher's name.
Part II, ubi agitur de conjugi primogeniti seu Adami, et inibi de anima, mente intellectuali, statu integritatis, et imagine Dei (Part II, which treats of the marriage of the firstborn or Adam, and in connection therewith of the soul, the intellectual mind, the state of integrity, and the image of God), pp. 24, 4to. This part mentions as its publishers Job, Nourse and Richard Manby.
The contents of these parts, according to their chapters, are as follows:
Part I.
Introduction, pp. 1 and 2.
1. The origin of the earth, pp. 2 to 12.
2. Paradise, pp. 13 to 19.
3. The nursery of the living in paradise, pp. 19 to 27.
4. The origin of the firstborn or Adam, pp. 28 to 35.
5. The infancy of the firstborn, pp. 36 to 66.
6. The love of the firstborn, pp. 67 to 120.
Part II.
The marriage of the firstborn.
Respecting this work Dr J. J. Garth Wilkinson says in his biography of Swedenborg (pp. 62 et seq.): "The Worship and Love of God is a centering of all that he had previously elicited from his studies, and an attempt, moreover, to carry them into another field. As the title prepares the reader to expect, it is an end in his scientific march. He began from God as the fountain of sciences; the wisdom of creation was the desire and wisdom of his labours; and here he ended with his beginning, carrying God's harvest to God. Apparently he did not know that this literary life was closed, but stood amid the sheaves, contemplating the tillage of future years in the old domain; although trembling nevertheless in the presence of an undisclosed event.
"In The Worship and Love of God, Swedenborg gives an ornate scientific narrative of the creation of our solar system, dropping the mathematical form of the Principia, and telling the story of the world in a physical and pictorial strain. The method runs the general to the universal, making use of nature as a vast tradition that speaks to those who understand her, of the whole past by the present. Thus as the sun is the material sustainer of the system, so the sustenance demonstrates a parental relation, and hence the sun was originally its material. Further as all growth and springing taking place in spring times, so the vernal seasons of all things point backwards to a primordial universal spring, the ocean of every rill of geniality, the germinal warmth of the world. This parentage with its conditions is unfolded; the conception and birth of the planets near the bosom of the sun from his body and substance; their incubation in the great egg of the universe; their exclusion therefrom, and their entry into space for themselves. The first kingdoms of nature are also described, and their difference from all others, for they were pregnant with all; moreover the general spring resulting from the nearness of the earth to the sun, and from the rapidity of its revolutions, whereby all the seasons were blended into one as to their temperate and delightful mean, night also being melted into, and mingled through, day, as winter through summer. And as the mineral was parturient with the vegetable, and the vegetable with the animal, so the innermost of the vegetable, the tree of life, bore the transcendent ovum of our race, and there the infinite met the finite, and the first Adam was born.
This concludes one department of the work.
"The remainder of the book is occupied with a description of the education of the first man, which took place by spiritual ministrations; and the second part is devoted to the creation of Eve, with her education, and marriage to Adam; the whole being an allegory of a six days' work. It is noticeable that Adam, born an infant, is instructed in intellectual matters, and whatever conduces to wisdom, but Eve, in scientific truths, particularly those of the human frame, the brain and the living fibres; somewhat in the reverse order of the present culture of the sexes. In both sexes, however, the spirit-lessons are taught by delightful representation and scene work born of the plastic atmospheres; and the novitiate mankind is raised to its feet, and eve after eye opened to the heaven above them, by sportive similar children fluttering around, and by attractive fruitage pendent over-head from the motherly groves of paradise."
Respecting this work we read in the "Private Diary for 1744" (Document 209, p. 709) under date of October 7, "I was further informed about my book upon the 'Worship and Love of God', which was said to be a Divine book. I believe it was to contain also something about spirits." Under the date of October 27 we read, "It was foretold to me that the twenty-seventh of October should come again; when I undertook the "Worship and Love of God." From this it appears that the author entered upon the preparation of the above work towards the close of October, 1744.
In respect to the value Swedenborg himself placed upon this work in his after-life, see Document 285.
In the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm Swedenborg's own copy of this work is preserved, and in it, probably for the purpose of preparing an index, an abstract of the contents of Part I is entered upon the margin of the book. This printed copy, together with the author's marginal notes, has been photo-lithographed. It constitutes a portion of Vol. VII of the photo-lithographed MSS. For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 51.
An English translation of this work appeared in London in 1801, and another in 1838. An American edition was published some time afterwards.
1745. (79.) De Cultu et Amore Dei, cujus hc pars tertia de Vita Conjugii Paris Primogeniti agit (The Worship and Love of God, Part III. On the married life of the firstborn pair), 9 pages, 4to, printed in proofsheets, and, in MS., 19 pages, folio.
This part is incomplete; nor does it seem to have been completed by the author. It was photo-lithographed by the editor of these Documents in 1870, in Stockholm. For further particulars, see document 310, Codex 51.
1745. (80.) Historia Creationis a Mose tradita (The History of Creation as related by Moses), in MS. It fills 25 pages in Volume I of what is known as the Adversaria (no. 82).
This is the first treatise Swedenborg wrote after the full opening of his spiritual sight, which took place in the middle of April, 1745. The author himself gives the following account of it: "The origin of the earth, paradise, the nursery of the living, and the birth of Adam were discussed in part I of my treatise of 'The Worship and Love of God.' That work, however, was written under the leadership of the understanding, or according to the thread of reason. As human intelligence, however, cannot be trusted in any respect, unless it is inspired by God, therefore it becomes necessary in the interest of truth to compare what has been laid down in the above-named work with the revelation in the Sacred Writings, and in the present case with the history of creation revealed by God to Moses, and thus to examine carefully how far they agree: for whatever does not harmonize thoroughly with revelation, must be declared to be altogether false, or the insane product of our rational mind."
With the present work, therefore, Swedenborg directed himself to the study of the word of God, and offered to it the homage of his natural science. That his spiritual sight was already fully opened when he wrote it, appears from a remark on p. 15, where he speaks of himself as having been introduced into heaven, and as conversing there with spirits, "having become as it were a spirit himself."
Swedenborg's illumination was progressive. In the doctrines of the New Jerusalem revealed, through his instrumentality to mankind, we learn that in the Sacred Scripture there are four distinct senses, the celestial, the spiritual, the spiritual-natural or interior historical, and the literal sense. When he first approached the study of the Sacred Scripture, he could only see the literal sense in it, and thus in the first chapters of Genesis he could only see the creation of the natural universe. He was not able to see more, even though his spiritual sight had been fully opened. The reason is that he was not to be a mere passive instrument for the transmission of spiritual knowledge to mankind, but what he was to communicate he was also to understand rationally.
The above treatise, therefore, marks the first step in the author's study of the Divine Word, when he discovered in it merely its literal sense, and, full of reverence for it as the Divine Word, was willing to subordinate to it the results of his natural investigations.
This tract, which contains a comment on the literal meaning of the first three chapters of Genesis, was printed by Dr. Im. Tafel as an introduction to Vol. I of the so-called Adversaria, viz. no. 82; it is contained in Codex 59 of the Swedenborg MSS.
1745. (81.) De Messiah venturo in mundum, et de Regno Dei (The Messiah about to come into the world, and the Kingdom of God), in MS., pp. 32, folio.
After finishing the preceding tract, (no. 80,) Swedenborg made the following remarks, which he underscored, "But let us examine the Scriptures, and especially for the purpose of ascertaining the quality of the Kingdom of God, such as it is going to be together with other things belonging thereto. The Scriptures do not treat of the Lord's Kingdom only here and there, but everywhere: for this is the end of the creation of all things, of heaven as well as of the earth" (Adversaria, I, p. 25).
The result of the above examination of Scripture is contained in the work which we are now considering. It consists of a collection of Bible passages under the following heads: 1. The Messiah about to come into the world; 2. The Messiah who is about to come a second time to restore the Jews; 3. The Kingdom of God; 4. Concerning Babylon. Of these passages the author drew general results, which he wrote down on pp. 4, 5, 30.
Further particulars may be found in Document 310, Codex 38, no. 3.
1745 and 1746. (82.) Explicatio in Verbum Historicum Veteris Testamenti (Explanation of the historical Word of the Old Testament), in MS., 3 volumes, folio, pp. 169.
This work is more generally known under the name of Adversaria (Common-Place Book), which was given to it by its editor, Dr. Im. Tafel, than it is under that by which it was designated by the author himself. It marks the second step which Swedenborg took in the investigation of the Divine Word. The exploration of its merely literal sense he did not carry farther than the third chapter of Genesis (see no. 80). After obtaining a general idea of the Kingdom of God by his examination of Scripture as described in no. 8; in the present document, he returned to the first chapter of Genesis with a view of discovering there, not the creation of the natural world, but the creation and establishment of the Kingdom of God.
He now recognized the existence of an interior sense in the Word of God in the following words, "That in the Mosaic account of creation there is everywhere a double meaning of the words, viz. a spiritual as well as a natural, appears clearly to the apprehension of every man from the tree of life and the tree of knowledge in the midst of the garden: for life and knowledge are spiritual, and yet are attributed to a tree, for this reason, that whatever originates in the ultimate parts of nature, on account of deriving its origin from heaven, involves something celestial in what is terrestrial, or something spiritual in what is natural; and it does so on this ground, that everything that is represented in the Divine mind, cannot but be carried out in reality in the ultimate parts of nature, and be formed there according to the idea of heaven. There results hence a correspondence of all things, which, with the Divine permission, we shall follow out in its proper series" (Adversaria, I, no. 23). Nevertheless, Swedenborg was not yet prepared to enter into the Word beyond the spiritual-natural, or interior historical sense although he was fully aware, even then, of the existence of a still deeper spiritual and celestial sense; see Adversaria, I, no. 505 et seq.
With regard to the place, which the Adversaria occupies among the theological writings of Swedenborg: First, it contains the spiritual-natural or interior historical sense of the Word, in which, by the individual persons mentioned in the Word, is understood the Church or the Kingdom of God as it exists among mankind at large, and more especially among the particular nation to which the persons in question belong. Secondly, it is a receptacle of the theological ideas which Swedenborg entertained up to 1746, and which will be found fully discussed in Note 165. Thirdly, in this work are also summed up his ideas on the soul of man, and other philosophical subjects, which he matured during his elaborate scientific studies; and, Fourthly, it contains the record of his first spiritual experiences, after his spiritual sight had been fully opened. These spiritual experiences are scattered throughout the whole work; but they are easily recognized in the text, because they have been printed by the editor with a larger margin.
The original arrangement of this work is as follows: Volume I of the original MS. contains an explanation of Genesis, chapters i to xxxv, in 1712 numbers or paragraphs. Volume II finishes the explanation of Genesis, and contains that of Exodus as far as chapter xv, in 2476 numbers; the numbers beginning afresh in Volume II. Volume III contains the end of Exodus; and afterwards gives an explanation of the rest of the historical works of the Old Testament in the following order:
1. Joshua, 2. Judges, 3. Ruth, 4. The two books of Samuel, 5. The two books of Kings, with some remarks on the Chronicles, 6. Leviticus, 7. Numbers, 5. Deuteronomy; in 7762 numbers, the new numbers beginning with Volume III.
It is a matter of regret that circumstances prevented Dr. Im. Tafel from carrying out the same arrangement in his printed edition of the work. He commenced his edition in 1842, before the Royal Academy of Stockholm had granted the Swedenborg Society of London the loan of the original MS.; wherefore the Doctor was obliged to have it copied by some friends in Stockholm. The part he received first was a transcript of a portion of Volume III, beginning with Joshua and extending to the Kings, and thence to Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, as the explanation of Joshua begins with no. 4451 and that of Deuteronomy ends with 7762, he seemed to be fully justified in inferring that Genesis and Exodus would fill nos. 1 to 4450 in the same volume. He, therefore, called the part containing an explanation of the historical books from Joshua to the Kings, Part II of the Adversaria, and that which contains an explanation of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, Part III, reserving the term APart I" for Genesis and Exodus. On receiving the original MSS. from Sweden in 1847 he found that the explanation of Genesis and Exodus fills not only nos. 1 to 4450 of Volume III containing Joshua, &c., but that it occupies also the whole of Volumes I and II, in each of which the numbering begins afresh. Nevertheless, he considered the publication of the Adversaria too far advanced, to warrant him in altering the plan which he had hitherto followed; whence it comes that in Dr. Im. Tafel's edition of the Adversaria, Part I contains 2045 pages in 6 volumes, while Part II contains only 109; and Part III, 367 pages.
As the references to the Adversaria continue to he made according to the plan of the original MS., we must state here that Adversaria, I, in the printed edition occupies Vols. 1 and 2 of Part I, Adversaria, II, Vols. 3 and 4 of Part I, and Adversaria, III, Vols. 3 and 4 of Part I, and likewise the whole of Parts II and III.
As to the special subjects which are discussed in this work, in addition to the explanation of the texts from Scripture, the author himself directs our attention to some of the following:
Adversaria, I.
1. How spiritua1 things are represented in natural things, nos. 23, 114, 877 et seq.
2. The order of life in the universe, nos. 88, 130.
3. Distinction between the soul, the intellectual mind, and the natural mind or animus, no. 131.
4. Plurality of senses in the Word, as many as four, no. 505.
5. The nature of the Kingdom of God, nos. 472 to 541.
6. The Kingdom of God in the most ancient times, and as restored by the only-begotten Son of God, nos. 594 to 627.
7. Order from first to last, i. e. in the world at large, and also in man when he was first created, and after he fell, nos. 628 to 668.
8. The internal and external man; man's life is love, 810 to 824.
9. The human understanding, its formation; truths, &c., nos. 916 to 944.
10. Good, love, affections, will, nos. 945 to 1004.
11. Growth of the human mind by love, nos. 1005 to 1019.
12. Hereditary evil, nos. 1039 to 1053.
13. Influx by means of angels and spirits, nos. 1147 to 1150.
Adversaria, II.
14. Respecting the literal and internal sense, nos. 363 to 368.
15. Knowledge of spiritual things derived from natural things.
Adversaria III.
16. The representations in the heavens, which arose from the ritual observances among the Jews, nos. 2035 to 2057.
17. The relation between fear and love, nos. 699 to 715.
18. The various senses in the Word of God exemplified, nos. 3352 to 3364.
A complete index to the spiritual experiences recorded in the Adversaria is contained in the Index to the Memorabilia or the "Spiritual Diary," no. 95.
For further particulars no. 95. respecting this work see Document 310, Codices 59 to 61.
1746. (83.) Index Biblicus librorum historicorum Veteris Testamenti (Biblical Index to the historical books of the Old Testament), in MS., pp. 581, oblong folio.
Simultaneously with Volume III of the Adversaria, which immediately precedes the present work, Swedenborg seems to have prepared a Concordance of Bible passages from the historical books of the Old Testament for his own use, viz. from Joshua to 2 Kings. The proper nouns belonging to this work constitute the beginning of no. 90, which is entitled: "Names of Men, Countries, Kingdoms, and Towns in the Sacred Scripture."
A portion of this work, as far as letter D, was embodied by Dr. Im. Tafel in his edition of the Index Biblicus.
For further particulars respecting this Index, which is contained in Codices 40 and 41 of the Swedenborg MSS., see Document 310, Codex 4.
1746 and 1747 (84.) Esajas et Jeremias explicati (Explanation of Isaiah and Jeremiah), in MS., pp. 107, folio.
This work is evidently a continuation of the Adversaria, no. 82, although it differs from it in its internal arrangement in not being divided into numbered paragraphs. Dr. Im. Tafel printed it, however, as Adversaria, Part IV. The fact of its having been written after "The Index to the Historical Books of the Old Testament," no. 83, is proved by several allusions to it in the body of the work. On p. 48 (Dr. Im. Tafel's edition) the author says in connection with Ar of Moab (Ar Moabi), "see my excerpts;" on p. 48 he points to his "collecta" about the east and Asshur; on p. 49 to his "collecta" on thiopia, Arabia, Cush; there are also other similar references on pp. 55 and 156.
As to the time of its composition the greater part of the work under consideration seems to have been written in 1746; for one of the spiritual experiences related in the work (p. 102; Isaiah xli), is dated November 7, 1746; and another on p. 185, November 21, 1746, which brings the work up to Jeremiah viii. On p. 206, only nineteen pages farther on the author introduces the date of February 23, 1747; so that these nineteen pages cover the space of two months. From this it evidently follows that after November 21 Swedenborg engaged in the preparation of some additional works. One of these works is the Annotata in Jeremiam et Threnos, discussed in no. 85; and another work on which he engaged was a continuation of his Index Biblicus, see no. 86.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 62.
1746 and 1747. (85.) Annotata in Jeremiam et Threnos (Notes on Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations), in MS. These notes were written by the author in the margin of his Latin Bible, where they begin with Jeremiah, chapter xviii, and are continued through the rest of that prophet and through the Book of Lamentations. The greater part of the author's Bible containing these particular notes is lost; yet enough remains to show that the whole of the prophet Jeremiah from chapter xviii was at one time annotated. The parts that remain are as follows: chapters xviii-xxii, xxxvi, chapter xl, 14 to chapter xliv, 17, chapter xlviii, 34 to the end of the prophet; also the whole of the Book of Lamentations.
The time at which these notes were written is determined by some allusions to them, which are contained in the preceding work (no. 84). On p. 196 of that work (Dr. Im. Tafel's edition), at the close of Jeremiah xviii, 18, we find the following words: "Concerning these things see the annotations in the margin, (de iis vide annotata in margine). By turning to the photo-lithographed copy of Swedenborg's Bible, p. 557, we find there the annotation referred to. Another allusion to these marginal notes is on p. 222, at the end of chapter xxxii, where these words occur: "See the notes belonging to this chapter in the margin" (vide notas in margine ad hoc caput); these particular notes, however, no longer exist, as there is a break in the author's Bible from chapter xxiii to the latter part of chapter xl.
From these allusions it appears that the author commenced the above notes some time in December, 1746, since he wrote his explanation of chapter viii of Jeremiah (see no. 54 p. 196) on November 21, 1716. It appears also that he prepared these notes simultaneously with the preceding work, viz. no. 84, and that on terminating that work in chapter xxxii of Jeremiah, he carried it on in the marginal notes as far as the Book of Lamentations. It is true that in no. 84, after chapter xxxii, there comes a partial explanation of chapter l, but as this bears the date of February 9, 1747, while chapter xxiii is already dated February 23, 1747, the author seems to have written it in advance of some of the other chapters.
The above then seems to constitute the first series of marginal notes in Swedenborg's Latin Bible, which was photo-lithographed in 1870 under the superintendence of the editor of these Documents, from the original codex, see no. 89.
1746 and 1747. (86.) Index Biblicus Esaj, et quoque Jeremi et Geneseos quoad partem (Biblical Index of Isaiah, and a portion of Jeremiah and Genesis), in MS.
When the author entered upon the preparation of this volume, the plan of his Index Biblicus had considerably enlarged in his mind; for henceforth he intended to make it not only a Concordance, but also a Dictionary of Correspondences. In the above volume he arranged alphabetically the correspondences of the common nouns and verbs contained in the "Explanation of Isaiah and Jeremiah" (no. 54), and also in the marginal notes to the prophet Jeremiah (no. 85). The correspondences of the proper nouns he entered in a separate volume, the MS. codex, no. 39, which is no. 90 in the present document.
After finishing his Index Biblicus to Isaiah and a part of Jeremiah, he turned back to the beginning of the Bible, and began in a similar way to collect the correspondence contained in the first chapters of Genesis, as far as chapter xv.
The result of both these works is the above volume, which appears among the Swedenborg MSS. as Codex 6.
The Index to Isaiah and Jeremiah was subsequently transferred by the author to another volume (no. 91), wherefore it was crossed out in Codex 6; but the Index to the opening chapters of Genesis continues there entire.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 6.
1747. (87.) Memorabilium pars prima (Memorabilia, Part I), in MS.
This is the record of Swedenborg's spiritual experiences from the end of February, 1747,* to the beginning of August in the same years. It constitutes nos. 1 to 148 of what is generally known as his "Spiritual Diary." The text of this collection of Memorabilia has not yet been found, but a very ample account of its contents is given in the Index to the Adversaria and to the Memorabilia, Parts II and III (Index to the "Spiritual Diary"), no. 94, and from this Index the substance of the missing text can be reconstructed without any very great difficulty.
* Up to that time he kept the record of his spiritual experiences in the Adversaria, no. 82, and in his "Explanation of Isaiah and Jeremiah," no. 84.
The following are the contents of the missing memorabilia: nos. 1-6. The nature of spirits; nos. 7 and 8. About dreams; no. 9. About Solomon; no. 10. Concerning the speech of spirits; nos. 11-16. Concerning permission; nos. 17 and 18. The intercourse of spirits with man; nos. 19 and 20. Concerning the Word; nos. 21 and 22. Concerning the mind of man; no. 23. The restraints of spirits; nos. 24-27. About wisdom; nos. 28 and 29. Concerning influx; Gad and Asher;* no. 30. The language of spirits; nos. 31-35.
The Last Judgment, (here Swedenborg states that the Last Judgment was seen by him in an effigy, such as it is described in the Apocalypse;) nos. 37-40. Concerning regeneration; nos. 42-46. Concerning the Word; nos. 47-51; Concerning spirits; nos. 52 and 53. The kingdom of the Lord, and that of the devil; no. 54. The power of love; nos. 55 and 56. Concerning several kinds of visions; nos. 58 and 59. More about spirits; nos. 60-62. Concerning the Lord's kingdom; no. 63. Concerning Abraham and his posterity; nos. 64 and 65. The influx of spirits with men; no. 66. Concerning Swedenborg's temptations; nos. 67 and 68. About rule; nos. 69 and 70. Concerning the nature of evil; nos. 71-75. Concerning influx; no. 77. Concerning simple and cunning spirits; no. 78. The memory of spirits; no. 79. Concerning the representations of spirits; nos. 80-82. Concerning the influx of spirits with men (Swedenborg states here that in his intercourse with the other world he was not there as a spirit, but as a man; yet he could not take anything out of his own memory from himself;) no. 53. Concerning man's hereditary nature; no. 81. Concerning light and shade; nos. 85-87. Concerning the speech of spirits: nos. 85-90. Concerning dreams; nos. 91-93. Concerning the intercourse of spirits with men, (in no. 92 Swedenborg describes the states of the spirits when they are with man) no. 94. The spirits of the interior and exterior world of spirits; no. 95. Concerning the tranquillity of peace; no. 96. The difference of the influx of good and evil spirits with man; no. 97. Concerning infants or innocencies; no. 98. The various species of love; no. 99. The interiors and exteriors of the Word; nos. 100 to 102. The influx of good and evil spirits with man, (in no. 102 Swedenborg declares that the spirits used to call him, the wonderful one;) no. 103. Concerning representations; nos. 104 and 105. The influx of spirits; no. 110. Men in ancient and modern times; nos. 112 and 113. Concerning natural and spiritual riches; nos. 114 and 115. The interiors and exteriors of the Word; nos. 116-121. The presence of spirits with men; no. 122. The nature of spirits; nos. 123 and 124. The presence of good and evil spirits with man; nos. 125-128. The nature of evil spirits; nos. 129-131. Man's state in the spirit is superior to his state in the body, (Swedenborg states here, that it was granted him to perceive the nature of the spirits by an interior sense, so that they could not deceive him;) nos. 132 and 133. Nature of evil spirits; no. 134. A peculiar state of Swedenborg; no. 137. Spirits are substances and forms; nos. 138-140. The memory, and man's book of life; nos. 141 and 142. The speech of spirits among one another and with man; no. 143. Definition of the devil nos. 144-146.
The Lord's government of spirits, and of the human race by means of spirits; no. 147. Concerning the Jews, that they still expect the Messiah; no. 148. Accidents that happen to man come from evil spirits; no. 148-1/2. Concerning intellectual pride; no. 148-1/2. Evil spirits think that God cannot do anything without them.
* This paragraph is referred to on p. 62 of the photo-lithographed Bible of Swedenborg, where we read, "De Gade et Aschere, vide experientiam, Tomus III ad finem, (concerning Gad and Asher, see the experience at the end of Volume III). Here light is thrown on the original whereabouts of the text of this MS., viz. it was "at the end of Vol. III." By Vol. III is no doubt meant here the Index Biblicus of the New Testament; see Document 304, no. 7, Vol. III, p. 780. At the end of Vol. II, (one of the Volumes containing the Index Biblicus of the Old Testament,) the beginning of Part II of the Memorabilia, no. 93, was contained. The above memorabilia, however, seem to have been removed from the Index Biblicus of the New Testament in Swedenborg's life-time; for on describing the volume containing this Index, Swedenborg's heirs do not mention anything about a portion of the Memorabilia being contained in it.
A full abstract of the contents of most of these articles is contained in the "Index" referred to above; of some, however, the mere titles of the subject-matter are given. Still, even the mere titles of these paragraphs are suggestive, and we hope that at some future time the remains of this first part of the "Spiritual Diary" will be published in the form recommended above.
1747. (88.) Fragmenta Notarum ad Genesin et Exodum (Fragments of Notes on Genesis and Exodus), in MS. These notes refer to the third distinct treatise which Swedenborg wrote on the book of Genesis. The first, which extends only over the first three chapters, is entitled: "The History of Creation as related by Moses," no. 80; the second constitutes the large work called by Dr. Im. Tafel Adversaria, no. 83; and the third treatise is the present, which is written in the margin of his Bible, and of which only the following parts have been preserved, viz. Genesis i-xvi, and xlviii-l, and Exodus xxxiv--xl.
In approaching the subject matter of the present work for the third time the author had the benefit of more than two years' uninterrupted intercourse with the spiritual world, and, besides, he had the advantage of the increased knowledge of correspondences which he had gained by writing the whole of the Adversaria and especially the "Explanation of Isaiah and Jeremiah" (no. 84).
The intrinsic difference between the treatment of Genesis and Exodus in the present volume, and that which the author followed in the Adversaria, is that in the latter work he described the creation and development of the Lord's Kingdom outwardly among mankind at large, and especially among the Jewish: people; while in the present work he takes a more internal view, and studies the development of the Lord's Kingdom in individual human minds. He thus rises from the contemplation of the internal historical or spiritual-natural sense of Scripture, to its interior sense, or to the spiritual sense proper; yet without being as yet able to penetrate to the celestial sense.
The author opens his present explanation of Scripture with the following introductory remarks: "1. For several years I have now almost continually conversed with spirits and angels, and they with me.
2. In this manner I have been instructed respecting the state of souls after death; 3. Respecting the divers sorts of spirits who seduce man, 4. Respecting hell, and its various and cruel afflictions and punishments; 5. Respecting the heavens, and the felicity of the souls which are there; 6. Respecting the doctrine of true faith, such as is acknowledged in the universal heaven; 7. Respecting the interior, and the more intimate (intimiori) senses [i.e. the spiritual-natural, and the spiritual proper,] as well of the Old, as of the New Testament, which constitute their spirit and their Life," (See "Swedenborg's annotated Bible," p. 1.)
The scope of this new treatment of Genesis and Exodus is plainly stated in the summary explanation of the first chapters of Genesis, where we read, "Chapter i treats of the creation of human minds, or of what is usually called the regeneration of men; for human minds are equal to nothing during infancy, and when they are born are simply conceived, or in a state of potency" (p. 1. Ibid). In the succeeding chapters is described man's progress in regeneration, and afterwards his successive decline until the time of the flood.
As regards the special time at which these notes were written in Codex 891 they were evidently prepared by the author immediately after he had finished his Index to the Prophet Isaiah, a portion of the prophet Jeremiah, and to the first fifteen chapters of Genesis (no. 85), as appears from the following allusions to this Index: On p.3, (see photo-lithographed edition of Swedenborg's Bible,) in connection with Gen. iii, 5, we read, "Concerning this and the rainbow, see my vocabulary in the passage from Jeremiah xxxii, 20, 25, under the heading "Day" (de hoc et de iride vidi vocab: meum, Jer. xxxiii: 20, 25, vide ibi DIES). On p. 8 (Ibid.) we read, AConcerning the flood, see in my collection several things concerning Inundation, which are to be premised" (de diluvio vide in collectaneis plura: INUNDATIO, prmittantur). Again we read on p. 62 (Ibid.) "concerning mourning not for the dead, but for him who goes away, see Jeremiah xxii, 10, in the article on Death (de planctu non super mortuo, sed super abeunte, Jer. xxii, 10, vide MORS).
An allusion to the marginal Notes on Jeremiah, no. 85, the substance of which was introduced into the Index Biblicus, no. 86, is found on p. 13 (Ibid., where we read in connection with Genesis xv, "see Jeremiah xxxiv, at the end, and the annotation on Calf" (videatur Jer. xxiv ad finem, et an[notation] in VITULUS). The marginal note itself has been lost; but the substance of the note is contained in the Index Biblicus to Isaiah and Jeremiah, no. 86.
References to the Index Biblicus of Genesis, chapters i-xv, which is contained in the same MS. volume as the "Biblical Index to Isaiah and Jeremiah" (no. 86) are very numerous;
on p. 4 there is a reference to the article "tree of life" (vide ARBOR VIT); on p. 5 to the "earth: (vide TERRA), on p. 9 to the "dove" (vide COLUMBA), on p. 10 to the articles on "blood" and the "soul" (vide FDUS), and on p. 13 to Afamine" (vide FAMES).
The "Index Biblicus of Proper Names," also, which was prepared by the author simultaneously with nos. 83, 86, and 91 (see no. 89), is repeatedly referred to, e. g. on p. 10, where in connection with the names Shem and Japhet, the author says, "See the Proper Names" (vide NOMINA). On p. 11 he again refers to the Proper Names, but he is very particular in adding, Abut those from the Prophets," i. e. from Isaiah and Jeremiah (sed hc ex prophetis). On p. 5 he says, see Adab, Zillah, and Lamech" (vide ADAH, ZILLAH, et LAMECHUS). On p. 13 he refers to the article on Egypt; and on p. 14, to the articles on Mamre and Hebron.
The first part of the Memorabilia or the "Spiritual Diary" (no. 86) is likewise referred to on p. 62, concerning which, see footnote to no. 87, p. 957.
From these statements the position which the present work occupies in respect to the preceding treatises, (i. e. nos. 84-87,) is very plain, viz. that it succeeds them in point of time, because it contains references to them. In respect to the following works, however, (i. e. nos. 89, and 91,) it must precede them in point of time, because it does not contain any references to them. As regards the composition of "Index," no. 91, we have, however, the definite date of October 9, 1747, so that the present work must have been written some time in June or July, 1747; in fact just between the time when Swedenborg applied to the King for release from his duties at the College of Mines on June 2, 1747, and the time he left Sweden for Holland in the latter part of July, 1747 (see Document 167).
After his arrival in Holland in the beginning of August, 1747, he made the following memorable entry in the MS. volume containing his "Index to Isaiah and Genesis," no. 86: "1747, August 7, old style. There was a change of state in me, into the celestial kingdom, in an image;" or in other words he herewith declares that the celestial degree of his mind had been opened, and that he was henceforth able to see not only the spiritual, but also the celestial sense of the Divine Word.
Still, before he could receive from the Lord the revelation of the celestial sense of the Word, he required first of all to have a more minute and precise knowledge of correspondences, according to his own statement to Dr. Beyer in Document 234 (p. 261), "When heaven was opened to me, I had first to learn the Hebrew language, as well us the correspondences according to which the whole Bible is composed."
This increased knowledge of correspondences the author acquired by writing the following three works, viz. nos. 89, 90, and 91, to which we refer the reader for further particulars.
1749. (89.) Fragmenta Notarum ad Prophetas (Fragments of Notes on the Prophets), in MS.
These notes, its well as those described in the preceding article, i. e. partly in the earlier, and partly in the later months of 1747. Those which he wrote at an earlier period are described in no. 85; all the rest of the annotations belong to the later period.
The object which Swedenborg had in view in the preparation of these later notes, was to render his knowledge of correspondences more minute and more precise, as we have shown at the close of no. 88; henceforth, therefore, he paid less attention to the general doctrine taught in each of the chapters, than to the correspondences of the particular words and phrases of which each separate verse consists. Herein is a marked difference between his earlier and his later notes on the prophets.
In order to carry out this object, (i. e. the increase of his knowledge of correspondences,) he first entered on the margin of his Bible the correspondences which he perceived during his study of a portion of the prophets, and afterwards he transferred the information which he thus obtained to his Index Biblicus (nos. 90 and 91). From this it follows that the preparation of these Notes and of the Index Biblicus, nos. 90 and 91, was carried on simultaneously by the author, at least during a part of the time.
When Swedenborg entered a second time upon the examination of the Prophets, he began with Isaiah, and in place of an introduction made the following preliminary statement: "in Isaiah, from beginning to end, occur double expressions, viz., such as have respect to celestial, and others that have respect to spiritual things; these are expressed in a particular, a general, and a universal sense in such a manner that everywhere therein the celestial marriage is represented. For in their interiors these expressions have reference to God-Messiah and to the Church, so that everywhere, in each single part, the kingdom of God-Messiah is represented as in an image;
and, indeed, not only in the whole series of each verse, and in the phrases of which it consists, but also in each word; from which the Divine nature of this prophecy is made sufficiently evident." Afterwards he gives a minute explanation of each verse up to the middle of chapter vii, when the notes cease. They reappear again in Jeremiah, but the greater part of that prophet is lost. The only chapters which are preserved, are those specified in no. 85, to which we refer the reader. In Ezekiel the following chapters have been preserved, viz. chapters i-xii, xxiv, xxv, xliii-xlvii; as all these chapters are fully provided with notes, we may conclude that the lost portions were likewise annotated. The four following prophets, viz. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, and Amos, which ale likewise fully annotated, are complete.
The Biblical Indexes into which the substance of these notes was transferred, are nos. 90 and 91. The former of these contains the proper nouns, and the latter the common nouns and verbs. By a careful comparison of Index, no. 91, with Index, no. 86, it appears that Swedenborg commenced the later "Index" by transferring into it bodily the contents of the earlier work, that is, as far as the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah are concerned. By a further comparison of Index, no. 91, with the marginal notes of Isaiah, chapters i-vii, it is made evident that the substance of these notes was not embodied by the author in this Index. By a careful perusal of Index, no. 91, we find also that not all the passages quoted there from the Prophets have their spiritual signification given, but only those from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and from Ezekiel up to chapter xxi. Besides, a mere cursory examination of what has been preserved of Swedenborg's Bible shows that all the marginal notes in the prophets up to that chapter have been mutilated, their outside portion having been partly cut off with a pair of scissors. As this mutilation has not been carried any further than chapter xxi of Ezekiel, it may be concluded that it was done by the author himself, who in this manner indicated that these notes had served their purpose. At first he crossed out some of these notes, as on the first and second pages of Ezekiel, but as this seemed to deface the Bible too much, he had recourse to the other mode.
As to the particular time, when Swedenborg prepared these marginal notes, we have already shown that the notes to Jeremiah were written in December 1746, and in the early part of 1747 (see no. 85). That the notes to Ezekiel and to the rest of the prophets, were written after August 7, 1747, that is after the celestial degree of his mind had been opened (see 88, p. 961), is proved by the following considerations.
First, on p. 674 of the photo-lithographed Bible, Daniel v, 29, we read, "See the note to reliqui," (vide not. Ad "RELIQU") On turning to the article in question in the Index Biblicus, no. 91, we find there a most apposite explanation of Daniel v, 15-19. From this then it would appear as if the second series of the marginal notes to the prophets was written simultaneously with Index, no. 91; and from this it follows also that by knowing the date of the composition of Index, no. 91, we are able to determine that of the later or second series of marginal notes to the prophets. Secondly, by turning to p. 423 of the Index, so. 91, (Dr. Kahl's edition) we find there under the head of "mare, the sea" the following passage: ["A tumult is coming, and not the shouting of the mountains, signifies an insurrection of the faithless in the ultimate heaven, which may be compared to a tumult of the sea, concerning which see what appeared to me in 1747, October 9; Ezek. vii, 7." The vision in question Swedenborg described in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 243, which is without date, and therefore may have taken place on October 9, although it is intermediate between no. 242, which is dated November 6, 1747, and no. 244, which bears the date of November 12. As the preparation of the marginal notes to the prophets and of Index, no. 91, was, however, carried on simultaneously by the author, or as these notes were written not very much in advance of the Index, it follows that the marginal notes to Ezekiel were prepared some time in September or October, 1747, and the marginal notes to the first six chapters of Isaiah some time in August or September, 1747. Thirdly, on p. 634 of the photo-lithographed Bible, opposite verses 20 and 21 of Ezekiel xxiv, we read, "while writing in 1747, on the 25th of [September] old style," (cum scribens, 1747, 25-- B --, st. v.) The name of the month is unfortunately cut off here. But from the fact that a passage from Ezekiel vii, was entered by Swedenborg in his Index Biblicus, on Oct. 9, 1747; and from the fact that the composition of the marginal notes no doubt preceded that of the Index some little time, we consider ourselves authorized in supplying the month "September" in the above passage.-All this then seems to settle pretty accurately the date when the above notes to the prophets were penned by the author.
1746 and 1748. (90.) Nomina Virorum, Terrarum, Regnorum, Urbium in Scriptura Saca (Names of Men, Countries, Kingdoms, and Towns in the Sacred Scripture), in MS., pp. 275, oblong folio.
This Index Swedenborg introduces by the following interesting preface: "the following names represent internal things, and in their proper order also inmost things. When these interior things appear, the exterior disappear or die, or become a dead letter. Each name has a certain definite signification, or in other words it has its own sphere of signification, reaching from the positive to the negative (privativo); and as this sphere of signification is between opposites, the sense sometimes appears to be various, when yet the sense or the meaning is determined by the subject-matter which is treated of. The case herein is almost the same as in several languages, especially the Hebrew, where single words have contradictory meanings; whence their significations are so various; the special meaning, however, of a word, or the sense in which it is used, appears from the context. It is important, therefore, that the fundamental signification of a name be first determined; and when this is once obtained, the rest follows without difficulty.
"It must be observed also that this interior sense or meaning of names can scarcely be acknowledged, as long as the mind clings to external things; yea it appears then so remote, that it can be acknowledged only by those who are in light. The light cannot be seen from darkness; because light with those who are in such a case, is darkened."
The present work contains, or points out, passages of Scripture illustrating the internal meaning of the names or proper nouns, in the following order: 1. From the historical books of the Old Testament (viz. from Joshua to the second Book of Kings); 2. From the prophetical writings; 3. From the books written by Moses, 4. From the gospels and the Apocalypse in the New Testament. This Index or Concordance goes therefore over the same ground as the works which are described under nos. 83, 91, and 92, and it contains the proper nouns belonging to each of these works. There is therefore a portion of our present work written simultaneously with no. 83, another with no. 91, and another with no. 92; so that its composition falls into the years 1746, 1747, and 1748. The portion which harmonizes with no. 91 differs from it in this respect, that while no. 91 (which contains a concordance to the prophets,) gives the spiritual signification of the passages it records only as far as Ezekiel xxi, the spiritual signification of the proper nouns in the present work is given as far as Amos, that is as far as the marginal notes in Swedenborg's Bible extend. From this it appears that the portion of the present work which harmonizes with no. 91, was written before that work, i. e. before the author had determined not to give the spiritual signification beyond signification beyond Ezekiel xxi.
The present work was embodied by Dr. Im. Tafel in his Index Biblicus, as far as published by himself, that is as far as letter D. That part of it which gives the spiritual meaning of the proper nouns, i. e. which harmonises with nos. 86 and 91, the editor of these Documents copied during his stay in Stockholm in 1870, and published under the auspices of the Swedenborg Society in 1873, with the title, Supplementum voluminis quarti Indicis Biblici Emanuelis Swedenborgii. In this supplement was also printed the interesting preface of the author.
Several references to the marginal notes in the Bible occur in this work, on pp. 11, 19, 25, 34, of the printed copy. On p. 25 the author says in connection with Nasirceus: "see note to Ezek. xliv, 20" (vide notam ad Ezeh. xliv, 20).
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 4.
1747 and 1748. (91.) Index Biblicus Librorum Propheticorum Veteris Testamenti, Psalmorum, Hiobi, Apocalypseos, et quoque Exodi, Levitici, Numerorum et Deuteronomii (Biblical Index to the Prophetical Books of the Old Testament, the Psalms, Job, the Apocalypse, and likewise to Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), in MS., pp. 636, large Folio.
Before Swedenborg entered upon the composition of the present comprehensive Index, he had made a preliminary Index to the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, into which he had collected the correspondences contained in his "Explanation of Isaiah and Jeremiah," no. 84, and also in the notes on Jeremiah which were written on the margin of his Bible, see no. 85. This has been abundantly shown in nos. 84, 85, and 86.
Neither this preliminary Index, nor the "Explanation of Isaiah and Jeremiah," on which it was based, seemed to him comprehensive enough, wherefore, as we have seen in no. 89, he started to go through the prophecy of Isaiah a second time. In this second study of Isaiah he, however, did not proceed farther than chapter vii, nor did he embody the correspondences (which he entered on the margin of his Bible as the result of this study) in the present Index, but simply transferred into it the whole of the preliminary Index, no. 86, as far as the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah are concerned, and then proceeded to the annotation of the Prophet Ezekiel; and as fast its he copied the contents of the old Index into the new, he crossed out the items in the former volume, as may be seen by a comparison of the two Indexes. See also Document 309, Codex 6, no. 1.
Towards the close of September, 1747, he began to enter into the present work the correspondences contained in his marginal notes to the Prophet Ezekiel, its appears from the date, October 9, 1747, which occurs on p. 423, (Index Biblicus, Vol. IV, edited by Dr. Kahl), and which we thoroughly discussed in no. 89, p. 964. After that date he seems to have gone on regularly with the work of entering the contents of his marginal notes into the present volume, until he came to chapter xxi. On reaching the end of that chapter, he suddenly ceased giving the spiritual significations of the passages from Scripture which he had entered. At first he seems to have done it for convenience, so as to proceed more swiftly in the work of compiling his concordance. At least in the article meridies, (p. 443, Dr. Kahl's edition) in quoting passages from chapter xxi, he repeatedly made the mark: B[iblia] SM[idii]; i. e. he referred either his readers, or himself to that copy of Smidius' version of the Sacred Scripture, which contained his marginal notes; in the same article also, on p. 444, (Dr. Kahl's edition,) in quoting a passage from chapter xlvi, he added there these words: vide notas ad V[ersionem] SM[idii], (see the notes to the version of Smidius); where it is made very plain that by the letters B. SM., which he introduced throughout the whole of his work, whenever he quoted a passage from chapter xxi, he intended to refer to the correspondences given in the margin of his copy of Smidius' Bible. These letters occur in the following articles of the printed work, divinator (p. 38), genu (p. 208), gladius (p. 215), ignis (p. 278), jurare (p. 333), lignum (p. 379), lumb (p. 395), manus (p. 418), offensio (p. 533), peccatum (p. 586), prvaricatio (p. 647), sanguis (p. 776), spiritus (p. 852), sylva (p. 880), videre (p. 992). The real reason, however, why Swedenborg after Ezekiel xxi, no longer entered into his Index Biblicus the correspondences written in the margin of his Bible, was, because he had now entered in fulness into that higher celestial state, the opening of which he had noticed on August 7, 1747, old style, (see no. 88, p. 961), and because by virtue of his having entered into that higher state, he was able to take a more interior view of the Sacred Scripture, and consequently a more interior, and hence clearer view of correspondences. We therefore hold that the correspondences contained not only in the Adversaria, but also in the marginal notes of Swedenborg's Bible, and in his Index Biblicus, viz. in nos. 86, 91, and 90, have all been superseded by the correspondences which are contained in the Arcana Coelestia, and in those works which he wrote simultaneously with, and subsequently to, his Arcana Coelestia.
After Swedenborg had out-grown the correspondences contained in his marginal notes, he quickly finished his concordance to the remaining prophets. Afterwards he took up the prophecies contained in the following chapters of some of the historical books, viz. Genesis xlix, Numbers xxiv, Deuteronomy xxxi and xxxiii, Judges v, 1 Samuel ii, 2 Samuel xxxiii, and proceeded thence to the Psalms, the Book of Job, the Apocalypse, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. A concordance of all these books is contained in the work we are now considering. Of Genesis Swedenborg did not prepare a concordance, because he was then already at work on his Arcana Coelestia.
As the author on October 9, 1747, had not yet proceeded beyond Ezekiel vii, it can scarcely be assumed that he finished writing this ponderous work before the end of the year 1747; especially if we take into consideration that this was not the only work which he had then in hand. We may therefore take it for granted that the present work was not finished until some time after the beginning of 1748.
This Index is one of the four works which constitute the whole of Swedenborg's Index Biblicus, or of his Biblical Concordance; the other works are nos. 82, 90, and 92. These four works which fill five of his MS. codices, as has been shown in Document 309, Codex 4, were worked up by Dr. Im. Tafel into one common Index. In the arrangement of this common Index, the editor did not retain the chronological order in which the various books of the Holy Writ had been taken up by Swedenborg, but he followed the order in which these books succeed one another in the Sacred Scripture generally. He was prevented, however, by his removal into the other world from carrying this work beyond the letter C. After his death, in 1868, Dr. A. Kahl307 of Lund saw the remaining portion of the present work through the press. At first up to p. 360, he retained the order introduced by Dr. Im. Tafel, i. e. he placed the quotations from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy first, and followed them up afterwards by the Prophets, the Psalms, Job, and the Apocalypse. From p. 261 he retained the order which Swedenborg followed in his own MS.; i. e. he began with the Prophets, the Psalms, Job, and the Apocalypse, and then finished with the quotations from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
He did not follow, however, the example of his learned predecessor by carefully pointing out his own emendations of the text, so that we are not able to tell how far his edition is an improvement on the original text.
For further information respecting this work see Document 310, Codex 4.
1747 and 1748. (92.) Index Biblicus Novi Testamenti, (Biblical Index of the New Testament), in MS., pp. 435, large oblong folio.
This Index, which is contained in Codex 5, is a minute Concordance of the Four Gospels, in the following order: 1. Matthew, 2. John, 3. Luke, and 4. Mark. The Book of Revelation, on account of its being a prophetical book, was included by the author in Index, no. 91.
The order in which the author entered the several books of the Old and New Testaments in his Concordance, is as follows: 1. The historical books of the Old Testament from Joshua to II Kings; 2. Isaiah and a portion of Jeremiah; 3. Genesis as far as chapter xvi; 4. The rest of Jeremiah together with the Book of Lamentations; 5. The prophets from Ezekiel to Malachi; 6. The prophetical chapters scattered through the historical books of the Old Testament; 7. The Psalms; 8. The Book of Job; 9. The Apocalypse; 10. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; 11. Matthew; 12. John; 13. Luke; 14. Mark. This also is the order in which the proper nouns of the Old and New Testaments are entered in Index, no. 90. From the fact, however, that the names from the gospels come in that work after those from the Old Testament, it follows that the author compiled his Concordance to the New Testament after that to the Old, and thus after 1748. (See no. 91.)
The value of this Biblical Concordance for the New Church is considerable, especially because we consider it established beyond a shadow of doubt, that, with the exception of the passages collected from some of the historical books of the Old Testament, all the remaining parts of this Concordance were written after August 7, 1747, and thus after the celestial degree of Swedenborg's mind had been opened, and he had thereby acquired the capacity of being illuminated by the highest degree of spiritual light. We therefore consider ourselves fully justified in maintaining that, while entering these passages from Scripture in his Concordance, he had a full understanding of their internal meaning, and thus was able to judge of the correctness of the translation of the letter by examining and testing it in the light of the spiritual sense. Swedenborg's Biblical Concordance, therefore, contains that version of the Sacred Scripture which he approved while in the highest state of illumination; and for this reason also his Concordance was the storehouse on which he drew for Biblical passages in the preparation of those theological works which he wrote and published from 1747 to 1771.
The Latin version on which he mostly depended in all his theological writings beginning with no. 82, i. e. the Adversaria proper, is that of Sebastian Smidius.301 In no. 80 he still hesitated between the Latin versions of Castellio and Smid301, but at the beginning of no. 82 he observed in the margin: "Here and in other places the version of Smidius is to be employed" (Assumatur hic, &c. interpretatio Smidii). The reason why ire decided in favour of the version of Smidius he explains in the Adversaria, II, no. 363, thus: "No one at the present day cares for anything else than the merely literal sense of the Word, because mankind are in the last or ultimate, and in natural times, even to such a degree that they are altogether ignorant of spiritual things; wherefore the translators of Scripture also are in a like state of persuasion, and are little interested in translating the very words of the text from their original source, as Smidius has done; but affect a mere elegance of style, as is done by most. The very words [of Scripture] have thereby been changed into such as have a merely historical import, and they have been deprived thereby of all light, which dwells only in that sense that is to be evolved out of the very words of the Lord." See also the "Explanation of Isaiah" (Adversaria, IV, p. 66).
1747 and 1748. (93.) Memorabilium pars secunda, (AMemorabilia," Part II), in MS., pp. 516, large oblong folio.
The original MS. of this work constitutes Codex 2 of the Swedenborg MSS. It was published by Dr. Im Tafel during 1844 and 1845, under the title "Emanuelis Swedenborgii Diarium Spirituale" (Spiritual Diary), Volume I, parts 1 and 2, containing 969 pages, 8vo. Part 1 was translated into English by the Rev. J. H. Smithson and published both in England and America. Part 2 was translated by Prof. Bush of New York, and published after his death under the editorship of the Rev. Samuel Beswick of Strathroy, Canada.
Part II of Swedenborg's Memorabilia begins with no. 149 and extends to no. 3427. All these numbered paragraphs bear the date when they were written; the earliest is July 26, 1747 in no. 166; the latest October 2, 1748. The whole of this work Swedenborg wrote in Holland, after he had left Stockholm about the middle of July, 1747. In October, 1748, he departed for London in order to print there Vol. I of the Arcana Coelestia. This will be shown in the following article (no. 94). The last paragraph in the present work from no. 3423 to 3427 he wrote during his journey to England; for they are all marked "on the way" (in via).
As to the contents of the Memorabilia they consist of a minute record of Swedenborg's spiritual experiences from August, 1747, to October, 1748.
The object of these experiences was to prepare him to write from the Lord the spiritual explanation of Genesis and Exodus as contained in the Arcana Coelestia, and also the systematic description of the spiritual world and its influx into the natural world, which is appended to the chapters in that work.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codices 2 and 3.
1747 to 1753. (94.) Arcana Coelestia, qu in Scriptura Sacra, seu Verbo Domini sunt, detecta: hic qu in GENESI. Una cum Mirabilibus, qu visa sunt in Mundo Spirituum et Clo Angelorum (The Heavenly Mysteries, which are in the Sacred Scripture or the Word of the Lord, disclosed: here those which are in Genesis; together with the wonderful things which have been seen in the world of spirits and in the heaven of angels,) [London, John Lewis,] 5 vols. pp. 2761, 4to.
1747 to 1758. (95.) Arcana Coelestia, qu in Scriptura Sacra, seu Verbo Domini sunt, detecta: hic qu in EXODO, et in Clo Angelorum (The Heavenly Mysteries, which are in the Sacred Scripture of the Word of the Lord, disclosed: here those which are in Exodus, together with the wonderful things which have been seen in the world of spirits and in the heaven of angels,) [London, John Lewis,] 3 vols., pp. 1796, 4to.
This the largest and most voluminous work which Swedenborg wrote, he published in two distinct divisions, the first of which contains an explanation of the internal sense of Genesis, end the second of Exodus. That these two divisions were entirely distinct, appears from the circumstance that the author did not style the first volume of the explanation of Exodus Arcana Coelestia, Vol. VI, but denominated it Vol. I of the explanation of Exodus.
The Arcana Coelestia appeared without the name of the author, and without that of the publisher and the place where published. Still, it is well known that it was published in London by John Lewis of Paternoster Row (See Document 258, p. 492 et seq., which contains the prospectus of Vol. II of the work, issued by John Lewis). Besides, Swedenborg acknowledged himself to be the author of the work in 1768, (see Document 281, A, and then he likewise stated that it was published in London from 1757 to l758.
This statement conflicts with the year of publication as imprinted upon the separate volumes of the work; for Vol. I, according to the statement on the title-page, was published in 1749, Vol. II in 1750, Vol. III in 1751, Vol. IV in 1752, Vol. V in 1753, Vol. VI likewise in 1753, Vol. VII in l754, and Vol. VIII in 1756. Swedenborg, therefore, by declaring that the publication of the Arcana Coelestia extended from 1747 to 1758, desired to show not that Vol. I was printed in 1747, and Vol. VIII in 1758, but that during the whole of this time he was engaged on this work in some form or other.
On July 17, 1747, as we see from Document 167, B, he took leave of his former colleagues at the College of Mines, in order "as soon as possible to commence his new journeys abroad." From Stockholm he did not depart for England, as is commonly supposed, but for Holland, where he staged until the beginning of October, 1748. That he was in Holland during November, 174'7, and January, 1748, is proved by an apparently trifling annotation of household expenses contained in Document 136, G, p. 386, where the money expended is put down in "guilders" and "styfers," which are Dutch coins. Besides, in the same Document, subdivision B, p. 384, which contains a letter addressed to his banker, Hultman, in Stockholm, he acknowledges the receipt of the statement of account for 1747, and instructs him to forward his letters to the care of Messrs. Grill, a mercantile firm in Amsterdam (see Note 112). In Holland Swedenborg in the first place finished his Index Biblicus, i. e. the Concordance of the Old and New Testaments (nos. 91 and 92), which he needed for the preparation of the Arcana Coelestia; and, besides, he was most intensely occupied with a. thorough exploration of the spiritual world, and the life which spirits and angels lead there. This is proved by the fact that the memorabilia which he wrote during his stay in Holland from August, 1747, to October, 1748, fill 989 pages in Dr. Im. Tafel's edition of the "Spiritual Diary."
That Swedenborg left Holland for England in October, 1748, is proved by nos. 3423 to 3427 in the "Spiritual Diary" (Memorabilia, Part II,) where he remarks that they were written "on the journey" (in via), i. e. while he was journeying from Holland to England. These entries are preceded and followed by others written on October 2, 1745. From Document 136 we learn, however, that he took lodgings in England on November 23, 1748; for he states there that on that day "he took lodgings at six shillings a week for half a year." As "shillings" are English coin, he must have taken lodgings then in London, whither he went to have Vol. I of the Arcana Coelestia printed.
That he finished the MS. of Vol. I of the Arcana Coelestia in Holland, is proved by Document 136, F, where he reminded himself "to take the Ex[positionem] Sp[iritualem] (the Spiritual Explanation of Genesis), and lay it on the top." If the MS. of the Arcana Coelestia, Vol. I, however, was finished in October 1748, Swedenborg must have entered upon its composition early in 1748, or rather in the latter part of 1747, i. e. before he had quite finished his Biblical Concordance.
In England Swedenborg stayed only long enough to make the necessary arrangement with John Lewis for the regular appearance of the Arcana Coelestia; and before that gentleman had announced in the newspapers the appearance of Vol. I, Swedenborg had already left the country again; probably, because he was instructed to preserve a strict incognito in respect to the authorship of his work. The announcement of the publication of Vol. I must have been made during the summer months of 1749; for the letter which Stephen Penny wrote to John Lewis, after reading the volume, (see Document 258, B, p. 498,) is dated October 15, 1749. But by that time, as we have seen, Swedenborg was away again in Holland, probably in Amsterdam; for his letters from England and Sweden were all addressed to that town to the care either of Joachim Wretman,147 or Messrs. Grill.112 It is probable, that, as Swedenborg engaged his lodgings in London only for six months, at the expiration of that term, i, e. towards the close of May, 1749, he left London again for Amsterdam. At the approach of autumn, however, in the same year he went from Amsterdam to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he spent the winter; as appears from Documents 210 to 213, which consist of letters addressed to him at that place by Joachim Wretman.
Concerning Volume I John Lewis states in Document 258, p. 494, "This gentleman (i. e. Swedenborg) with indefatigable pains and labour spent one whole year in studying and writing the first volume of the Arcana Coelestia, was at the expense of two hundred pounds to print it, and also advanced two hundred pounds more for the printing of the second volume; and when he had done this, he gave express orders, that all the money that should arise in the sale of this large work should be given towards the charge of the propagation of the gospel." The prospectus of Vol. II, from which this is extracted, appeared on February 5, 1750; and there the publisher states (Document 258, p. 492), that "the second volume is printing, both in Latin and English; to be published in cheap numbers, that the public may have it in an easier-manner, in either tongue, than in whole volumes."
On p. 496 he says further, "This second volume, which is now publishing in Latin and English, will he unaccountably cheap, as any one may conclude, even by the postage of the Latin copy from abroad: for the bale postage or this first number cost no less than twelve shillings, and now it is printed, does make fifty-two quarto pages in the English tongue; and all to be sold for no more than eight-pence, which is not half the price that such a quantity of paper and print is generally sold for. The postage of the second number came to eighteen shillings, and that of the third amounted to one pound two shillings; and yet these two numbers are to be sold for no more than nine-pence each; so that from hence it is easy to imagine how cheap the whole will be, especially when printed in such a grand and pompons manner at so low a price.
Volume II appealed in this manner in 6 numbers, both in English and Latin.* Numbers 1 and 3 have special prefaces, and each number is paged independently of the others. The English portion of this volume is exceedingly scarce. The Swedish "Biografiskt Lexicon" (Vol. XVI, p. 347) says in respect to it, "An English edition of this work [only of Vol. II] was published by Swedenborg himself, and printed in London in 4to numbers. The number of pages corresponds with that of the original. One single copy of it is known to exist. It belonged to Swedenborg himself; afterwards to one of his heirs, Bishop L. Benzelstjerna,10 and after him to Dean C. J. Knös236 in Skara; and it is now owned by his son, Prof. A. E. Knös of Upsal." This copy has since come into the possession of the Royal Library in Stockholm. Another copy of this extremely rare book is owned by the publisher of these Documents, Mr. James Speirs, of 36 Bloomsbury Street, London.
* The Rev. R. Hindmarsh says in his "Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church," p. 6, "The translation of the Sixteenth Chapter of Genesis, [of the whole of Vol, II,] which was advertised by Mr. Lewis, was made (as I have been informed) by Mr. John Merchant, a literary gentleman of good character, at the express desire of the author himself, who remunerated him for his trouble." The editor, the Rev. E. Madeley, adds in a footnote, "A copy of this (imperfect), and one part of the Latin, is in the possession of the Rev. E. Madeley of Birmingham; in the inside of the cover of the first is written, in the handwriting of John Augustus Tulk, Esq., the fact here stated, that it was translated by Mr. John Merchant. W. T. bought this copy in l783."
In the spring of 1750 Swedenborg returned to Stockholm, whither his agent, Joachim Wretman of Amsterdam forwarded to him some rare flower-seeds and bulbs (see Document 213, p. 226).
That he actually spent that year in Stockholm is proved by Document 285, where one of his biographers states, "I had occasion to see one of Swedenborg's Almanacs for the year 1750, where with the same preciseness, as if it had been the beginning or close of some profound treatise, he marked down, when he had planted an auricula, or a pink, the time when they bloomed, how much seed he had gathered of them, and so forth."
During the rest of the time he wrote the Arcana Coelestia, Swedenborg remained in Stockholm; as is further proved by his taking part in the Swedish Diet in 1755: from which time is dated one of the memorials contained in Section VI of the present work, viz. Document 173.
In respect to the contents of the Arcana Coelestia, which have been translated into the English, French, German, and Swedish languages, and have thus become known to most of our readers, we desire simply to call attention to the following passage from the "Spiritual Diary," where Swedenborg states the reason why he confirmed his explanation of the internal sense of Genesis and Exodus by so many parallel passages from other parts of the Sacred Scripture. He says, "Some thought that [what I wrote] ought not to be confirmed by parallel passages, but ought to be stated nakedly . . . But they were told, and also shown by various examples, that this altogether necessary, because the world, at the present day, is such that it prefers hypothetical statements" (D. S. 4133). The reason, however, why he added to the explanation of the internal sense it description of "the wonderful things which he saw in the world of spirits and in the heaven of angels," he states thus, "Some spirits were not willing that I should say any thing of the things revealed to me [viz. the memorable relations]; but they were told that these in the place of miracles; and that without them men would not know the quality of the book; they would not buy it, nor read it, nor understand it, nor be affected thereby, nor believe it; in short they would ignore it, and be unwilling to hear anything about the interior of the Word, which they would consider as fantasy; except some among the learned, the greatest part of whom, however, reject the book."
As to the spiritual experiences which Swedenborg appended to of Genesis, after concluding the publication of the Arcana Coelestia he worked them up in his treatise on "Heaven and Hell" into a more systematic form. Of some subjects which he treated at great length in the Arcana Coelestia, he gave, however, a mere summary in the work on "Heaven and Hell," e. g. of the exposition of the Grand Man of heaven, which extends from Genesis, chapter xxvii to chapter xliv; and again of his dissertation on "Influx and the Intercourse between the Soul and the Body," which extends from Genesis, chapter xlvi to the end of that work.
The spiritual experiences which are appended to his explanation of the various chapters of Exodus, on the other hand, he elaborated into the treatise entitled "The Earths in the Universe."
A third treatise which he extracted from the Arcana Coelestia is the "New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine." This he had inserted by installments before the chapters of Exodus, first under the title of the "Doctrine of Charity" (from chapter i to chapter xxii,) and afterwards under that of the "Doctrine of Charity and Faith" (from chapter xxiii to the end). His object in publishing this doctrine before the chapters of Exodus he explains thus (A. C. 6627), "The articles belonging to the doctrine of charity, and afterwards to that of faith must be inserted before the chapters of the book of Exodus, in order that what is scattered through the explanations, may be treated in a connected form."
In Vol. I the memorable relations are placed both at the beginning and at the end of each chapter. From Vol. II to Vol. V they are put only at the end. In Volume II the explanation of each chapter is introduced by a general disquisition on the nature of the internal sense, with a special reference to the spiritual contents of the chapter about to be explained. These disquisitions on the spiritual sense of the Word in general are continued up to chapter xxvi; from this chapter to chapter xl the author gives a spiritual explanation of Matthew xxiv and xxv. After chapter xl, throughout the whole of Vol. V., these introductory chapters cease.
One of these introductory disquisitions, viz. that before Chapter xxii (A. C. 2760-2763), the author subsequently expanded into the little treatise on the "White Horse, which he published in 1758 at the same time with "Heaven and Hell," "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine," and "The Earths in the Universe." As all these treatises are drawn from the Arcana Coelestia, and as constant and very copious references are made in each of these works to the Arcana Coelestia, the author regarded them in a certain sense as parts of that work, and therefore stated that the publication of that work extended from 1747 to 1758. Besides, he no doubt intended to indicate thereby that the full state of his inspiration began in 1747.
The Arcana Coelestia, together with "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine," were reviewed in the "Neue theologische Bibliothek," published by Dr, J. A. Ernesti in Leipzig, from 1760-1769.
The review is contained in no. 6 of Vol, I, and extends from pp. 803-810.
The first public notice of the Arcana Coelestia, and the five other treatises published in 1758, with Swedenborg named as their author, appeared in Sweden in 1763, in a work entitled, Anvisning til et Ulvaldt Theologiskt Bibliothek (Aid towards the formation of a select theological Library), by S. J. Alnander. On the authority of Alnander the "Svenska Mercurius" for January, 1764, likewise proclaimed Swedenborg the author of these works (see Document 283, A, no. 2).
In 1765 Prelate tinger's182 translated portions of the memorable relations appended to the chapters of the Arcana Coelestia, Vol. I, and published them in a work entitled: "Swedenborg's und Anderer irdische und himmlische Philosophie" (Terrestrial and heavenly Philosophy of Swedenborg and others), Frankfort and Leipzig, 1765.
The first translation of this work, prepared by the Rev. J. Clowes, appeared in Manchester in twelve volumes, from 1782-1806.
The first draught copy of the Arcana Coelestia, beginning at Genesis, chapter xvi, i. e. from Vol. II to the end, has been preserved among Swedenborg's MSS., where it constitutes Codices 8-10, 15-26, and 80, and fills 5875 pages, oblong folio. The clean copy for the printer in London, he forwarded by post from Stockholm, after his return home in 1750.
A reprint of the Arcana Coelestia, in the original Latin, Dr. Im. Tafel saw through the press from 1833 to 1842. In this edition the editor carefully pointed out all the errata, which he noticed in the original edition, and which are rather numerous, on account of the author not having been able to read the proof sheets himself (see Document 5, no. 37, p. 43). The editor of these Documents, during his stay in Stockholm from 1868 to 1870, compared carefully many of the errata pointed out by Dr. Im. Tafel, with the first draught copy in the Library of the Academy of Sciences, and is able to declare that none of these errors occur in the copy written by Swedenborg's own hand; wherefore they must be regarded as having been introduced by the printer, and not by the author.
For further particulars respecting this first draught copy of the Arcana Coelestia, see Document 310, Codices 8-10.
1748 to 1750. (96.) Memorabilium pars tertia, (Memorabilia," Part III), in MS. In the printed copy it fills 372 pages, 8vo.
Part III of the Memorabilia contains nos. 3428 to 4544. The dates in the work begin with October 2, 1748, and terminate in no. 4389 with September 15, 1749. From nos. 4390 to 4544 no precise date is given. This part of the Memorabilia fills that portion of Codex 3 which Swedenborg wrote during the time that intervened between his arrival in England in October, 1748, and his departure for Sweden in the spring of 1750. During his journey to Sweden in 1750 he seems to have kept the record of his spiritual experiences in a little pocket volume which was published by Dr. Im. Tafel under the name of "Diarium Minus" (no. 97). This little pocket volume he used until the close of November, 1751, when he returned again to Codex 3, and wrote that portion of it which constitutes Part V of the Memorabilia (no. 99).
Part III of the Memorabilia was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1843 under the title, Diarii Spiritualis Pars Secunda. A few years afterwards it was published in English by Prof. George Bush of New York.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codices 2 and 3.
1750 and 1751. (97.) Memorabilium pars quarta ("Memorabilia," part IV), in MS., pp. 134, 16mo.
This is the little work mentioned above, (no. 96,) which Dr. Im. Tafel published in 1843 under the title, Diarii Spiritualis Pars IV, sive Diarium Minus." The numbered paragraphs run on consecutively with the Memorabilia, Par II (no. 92), and commence with no. 4545. These numbers, however, are continued only through about half the volume, viz. to no. 4715, or to p. 43 of the printed copy. From pp. 43 to 84 the paragraphs are unnumbered.
As to the time during which this little work was written, one of the paragraphs on p. 47 of the printed copy is dated fifteen days after the death of King Frederic of Sweden; as this King died on April 10, old style, 1751, this paragraph must have been written on April 22, 1751. Again, a paragraph on p. 65 was written three days after Polhem's death, who died on August 31, 1751; so that this paragraph must have been written on September 2, 1751. Finally, on the last page of the little treatise, or p. 84, the date of November 19, 1751, occurs. From this it follows that pp. 47 to 84 were written between April 25 and November 19, 1751: If, therefore, 37 pages of this little work were written during the nine or ten months previous, so that the author must have commenced it some time in June or July, 1750, and thus about the time when he returned to Stockholm in 1750.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 95.
1748-l751. (98.) Index Adversarirum et Memorabilium partium I-IV (Index to the Adversaria and the Memorabilia, Parts I-IV), in MS., pp. 988, oblong folio.
This Index contains a copious description, 1. Of the spiritual experiences scattered through the Adversaria (no. 82); 2. Of those contained in Part I of the Memorabilia now lost (no. 87); 3. Of those contained in Parts II and III of the Memorabilia (nos. 93 and 94); and 4. Of those contained in Part IV of the Memorabilia (no. 97), so far as these are numbered, i. e. to p. 43 in the printed copy.
Swedenborg seems to have entered upon the compilation of this Index after finishing his "Biblical Concordance" in the early part of 1748. On September 30, 1748, he had proceeded with this Index as far as Memorabilia, Part II (Spiritual Diary), no. 1720, as appears from no. 3417, where we read, "While I was extracting or indexing (cum excerperem) those things which were observed in nos. 1719 and 1720 on spirits and their sensation," &c.
Dr. Im. Tafel published this work in 1846 and 1847 under the title, Emanuelis Swedenborgii Diarii Spiritualis Partis V volumina 1 et 2, continentia Indicem Partium I, 1. 2, II, IV. The original MS. fills Codices 42 to 45, but from the fact that several articles, viz. Amor, Cerebrum, Ecclesia, Fides, Hypocrita, and Verbum are not finished, the learned editor suggests that a fifth Codex in which these articles were finished, must have originally existed. Meanwhile, until this missing Codex should be found, he supplied the missing portion of the Index himself, in a, supplement to Part II of the work.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codices 42 to 45.
1758 to 1765. (99, A.) Memorabilium pars quinta (AMemorabilia," Pert V), in MS.; in the printed copy it fills 602 pages, 8vo.
This part of the Memorabilia is contained in Codex 3, and follows there immediately after the text of Part III. Between these two portions of Codex 3, however, there is a break of nearly a year and a half, which is filled up by what is known as the Diarium Minus, or Part IV, (no. 97). The author seems to have overlooked the fact of the Diarium Minus occupying this intermediate position between the two portions of Codex 3, and in numbering the paragraphs of Part V he began with no. 4545 in forgetfulness that he had commenced Part IV with the same number. Nos. 4545 to 4715 occur thus both in Parts IV and V.
Dr. Im. Tafel published this part of the Memorabilia under the title, Emanuelis Swedenborgii Diarii Spiritualis Partis III Volumina 1 et 2; the former of these volumes: contains 379, and the latter 223 pages.
The paragraphs are numbered up to p. 197, in Vol. 2; thence to p. 210 they are no longer numbered on pp. 210 to 223 there is a collection of miscellaneous statements on the subject of marriage and adultery in 82 paragraphs.
The following dates occur in the work: no. 4550, January 11, 1752; no. 4573, August 6, 1752; no. 5099 is written about a week after the death of Count Eric Brahe, who was executed on July 23, 1756 (see Note 137); no. 5336, January 6, 1757; no. 5762, May 1757; no 5980, December 13, 1759; no. 5994, June 12, [1760;] no. 6009, August 15, 1761; no. 6019, January 22, 1762; no. 6027, March 5, 1762; no. 6097, (p. 198, Vol. II, printed copy,) December 30, 1763; p. 209 (Ibid.), December 3, 1764; p. 222 (Ibid.), April 29, 1765.
The greater part of these Memorabilia was written during 1756 and 1757, when preparations were being made in the world of spirits for the Last Judgment, and when the Last Judgment was actually proceeding there. The paragraphs containing information respecting the Last Judgment range from nos. 5034 to 5871, and they fill upwards of 250 pages in the printed copy. The spiritual experience contained in these paragraphs Swedenborg presented in a systematic form in his treatise on "The Last Judgment," which he published in 1758, together with "Heaven and Hell" and the other treatises extracted from the Arcana Coelestia.
For further particulars respecting the original MS. of this work, see Document 310, Codices 2 and 3.
1752-1765. (99, B.) Index Memorabilium partium III-V (Index to the "Memorabilia," Parts III-V), in MS., pp. 100, folio.
This Index is more compendious than no. 98. It contains an abstract of the Index to Part III which in a more succinct form is incorporated with no. 98. It contains also an Index to the whole of Part IV, a portion of which is likewise embodied in no. 981 and, finally, it contains a full Index to Part V. It was published by Dr. Im. Tafel as Diarii Spiritualis pars VI.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 63.
1749 to 1756. (100.) Index Verborum, Nominum, et Rerum in Arcanis Coelestibus (Index to the words, Names, and Things in the Arcana Coelestia), in MS.
Particulars concerning the original MS. of this Index, which was printed in 1815 at the expense of John Augustus Tulk,228 Esq., will be found in Document 310, (Codices 112 and 113.
1757 and 1758. (101.) De Cle et ejus Mirabilibus, et de Inferno, ex auditis et visis (Heaven and its wonders, and Hell: from things heard and seen). London, 1758, pp. 272, quarto.
After finishing the Arcana Coelestia in 1756, Swedenborg, as is stated in no. 94, employed the remainder of that year, and also the year 1757, in extracting from that work the treatises on "Heaven and Hell," "The White Horse," "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine," and the "Earths in the Universe;" and from his Memorabilia the treatise on "The Last Judgment" (see no. 98). In the spring of 1758 he journeyed to England where in the same year he published the whole of these five treatises. In 1759 he returned to Sweden, as will be shown in no. 106.
The chief materials employed in the preparation of the treatise on "Heaven and Hell," are the accounts of things heard and seen, which are prefixed and appended to his explanation of the various chapters of Genesis.
This treatise has been translated into German, English, French, Swedish, Norwegian, and Italian. The first translation into German appeared is 1775 under the title: "Vom Himmel und von den wunderbaren Dingen desselben; wie auch von der Geisterwelt und von dem Zustand des Menschen nach dem Tod; und von der Hlle; so wie es gehrt und gesehen worden von Emanuel Swedenborg. Aus der zu London 1758 gedruckten lateinische Urschrift getreulich ilbersetzt, und mit Anmerkungen begleitet; nebst einem Vorbericht von des Verfassers rhmlichem Leben und Schriften." The translation, according to Dr. Im. Tafel, was prepared by a Mr. Cude. This edition was reprinted in Altenburg in 1784.
The first English translation of this work appeared in 1778; it was translated by W. Cookworthy of Plymouth, and revised by the Rev. Thomas Hartley, who also wrote the preface to it (see Note 1). An extract from this preface, which has been so much and deservedly admired, constitutes Document 259, nos. 15 to 20.
The first French translation of this work, which appeared in Berlin in 1782, under the title, Les Merveilles du Ciele et de l'Enfer, was prepared by Abb Pernety.34 Concerning the value of this translation, see Note 34, Vol. I, p. 637.
1757 and 1758. (102.) De Equo Albo, de quo in Apocalypsi, Chap. XIX; et dein de Verbo et ejussensu spirituali seu interno, ex Arcanis Coelestibus (The White Horse mentioned in the Revelation xix, and afterwards the Word and its spiritual or internal sense, from the Arcana Coelestia), London, 1758, pp. 23, quarto.
This little treatise, as has been shown in no. 94, is all expansion of the introductory disquisition to the twenty-second Chapter of Genesis in the Arcana Coelestia, nos. 2760 to 2763. Document 300, a paper which the Author submitted to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, may be regarded as a continuation of it. The chapter on the Word, which consists mainly of references to the Arcana Coelestia, has been embodied also in his treatise on "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine" (no. 103).
The first English translation of this little work appeared in 1788 under the title, "Concerning the White Horse mentioned in the Revelation, Chap. XIX, and concerning the Word and its Spiritual or Internal Sense." It was translated by R. Hindmarsh and printed at his expense (see "Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church, Appendix I, no. 11). To this first edition was added, "An Account of the Souls of Beasts, and the Life of Vegetables;" taken from the "Apocalypse Explained" (no. 106), nos. 1196-1215.
1757 and 1768. (103.) De Nova Hierosolyma et ejus Doctrina Coelestia: ex auditis e Clo. Quibus prmittitur aliquid de Novo Clo et Nova Terra (The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, from things heard out of heaven; with an Introduction on the New Heaven and the New Earth), London, 1758, pp. 156, quarto.
This treatise consists mainly of the articles which were prefixed to the chapters of Exodus in Vols. VI-VIII of the Arcana Coelestia under the title, "Doctrine of Charity," and "Doctrine of Charity and Faith," concerning which, see nos. 94 and 95. To each of the sections of this work most extensive references to the Arcana Coelestia are subjoined, which add greatly to the value and also to the size of the work.
The first translation of this work into German appeared in 1772, under the title, Vom neuen Jerusalem und dessen himmlischer Lehre: aus dem Himmel gehret, von Emanuel Swedenborg. The references to the Arcana Coelestia were, however, omitted. The second edition appeared in Altenburg in 1788.
The first English translation, prepared by Mr. Provo, with the assistance of Mr. R. Hindmarsh, appeared in 1784, both with and without the Extracts from the Arcana Coelestia; the London and Manchester Printing Societies bearing the expense of publication.
A French edition, with the extracts from the Arcana Coelestia was printed in London as early as 1782 under the title, "De la Nouvelle Jrusalem et de sa Doctrine Cleste."
A Swedish edition was published by the Exegetic Philanthropic Society of Stockholm in 1789 under the title Om Nya Jerusalem, och dess himmelska Lra.
It has also been translated into the Danish, Italian, and Welsh languages.
1756 and 1758. (104.) De Telluribus in Mundo nostro Solari, qu vocantur Planet: et de Telluribus in Clo Astrifero: deque illarum Incolis; tum de Spiritibus et Angelis ibi; ex auditis et visis (The Earths in our solar system which are called planets, and the earths in the starry heavens; their inhabitants, and also the spirits and angels there: from things heard and seen), London, 1758, pp. 72, quarto.
This little volume contains the substance of the spiritual experiences and memorable relations which are added to each of the chapters of Exodus in Vols. VI to VIII of the Arcana Coelestia--the arrangement, however, differs. In the Arcana also six earths of the starry heavens are described, but in the present work only five. The earth which has been omitted is the fourth in order; it is described in nos. 10,585-10,590, and nos. 10,708 to 10,712.
The present work abounds in references to the Arcana Coelestia, which are similar in style to those in the treatise on "Heaven and Hell."
The first translation of this work was into German. It was translated by a nephew of Prelate tinger,182 and printed in 1771, under the title, Vom den Erdkrpern oder Planeten und des gestirnten Himmels Einwohnern.
The first English translation was prepared by the Rev. John Clowes, and printed at the expense of the Manchester Printing Society in 1787.
1757 and 1758. (105.) De Ultimo Judicio, et de Babylonia Destructa: ita quod omnia, qu in Apocalypsi prdicta sunt, hodie impleta sint: ex auditis et visis (The Last Judgment and the Destruction of Babylon, showing that what was foretold in the Book of Revelation has been fulfilled in the present day: from things heard and seen), London, 1758, p. 55, quarto.
This little work was extracted in great measure from the Memorabilia, Part V, most of which was written during 1766 and 1757 (see no. 99). It contains many references to the Arcana Coelestia.
A French translation of this work appeared in London in 1787 under the title, Du Dernier Judgment et de la Babylonie dtruite: Londres, de l'imprimerie du bureau tyographique de la Nouvelle glise.
An English translation prepared by Mr. R. Hindmarsh was printed at his expense in 1788.
1757-1759. (106.) Apoclypsis Explicata secundum sensum spiritualem, ubi revelantur Arcana, qu ibi prdicta, et hactenus recondita fuerunt (The Apocalypse explained according to its spiritual sense, wherein are revealed the mysteries there foretold, which have hitherto been unknown), in MS., pp. 1992, four volumes, quarto.
Of this work, the most extensive that Swedenborg wrote, except the Arcana Coelestia, two MS. copies are in existence. Of these the first is a rough copy of the whole work (see Document 310, Codices 27-35), and the second is a copy written out clean for the printer (see Document 310, Codices 107-109).
On the title page of Vol, I of the second copy is written, "London, 1759," which shows that the author had intended to publish it there in that year. Besides, we read in no. 1147, towards the close of the whole work, "As regards myself, I can attest that for fifteen years I have perceived manifestly that I did not think or will anything from myself, and also that all evil and falsity flowed in from infernal societies, and all good and truth from the Lord." As at the time when Swedenborg wrote this, he regarded 1744 as the year when his spiritual sight was opened (see Note 168), it follows that he wrote the latter part of the present work in 1759. If, however, the author wrote out the latter part of this work for the press in 1759, he must have entered upon its preparation in 1757. Still as he quotes in the earlier portions of this work very extensively not only from the Arcana Coelestia, but also from "Heaven and Hell," "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine," and also from "The Last Judgment," these works must have been ready for the press, when he commenced his explanation of the Apocalypse in 1757.
Meanwhile Swedenborg seems to have spent the whole of the memorable year of 1757 in his quiet home in Stockholm, and in the spring of 1758 to have left for London in order to publish there the five treatises mentioned in no. 101. In July, 1759, he returned to Sweden, as is proved by the conflagration in Stockholm, which took place on July 19, 1759, and which Swedenborg predicted in Gottenburg, a short time after his arrival there from England (see Documents 271 and 273).
On examining the work before us it is easy to see that the Author pursued two different plans in its preparation. The first plan he followed from chapters i to xii. He was there chiefly intent on fathoming the spiritual sense not only of the Apocalypse, but also of a great number of parallel passages from all parts of the Old and New Testaments; and in doing so he brought to bear on his work all the spiritual knowledge which he had previously acquired while writing the Arcana Coelestia, and especially his treatise on "Heaven and Hell," both of which works are almost constantly referred to throughout the whole of the explanation of the first twelve chapters. This is, indeed, so much the case that the first part of the "Apocalypse Explained" may be said to have grown out of the Arcana Coelestia, and those works which Swedenborg published in 1758, viz. nos. 101-105.
Upon arriving at chapter xiii Swedenborg introduced a plan similar to that which he had previously followed in the Arcana Coelestia; i. e. he began collecting and reducing into a systematic form the doctrinal statements, which are scattered throughout this explanations of the spiritual sense of the Sacred Scripture. The first doctrinal work, which he collected in this wise from the Arcana Coelestia, is "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine" (no. 103). There he stated the doctrines of the New Jerusalem in a clear, but general form.
The Author's object in the "Apocalypse Explained" was to expand the general doctrinal statements contained in "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine," by filling in the particulars of doctrine.
The first doctrine which he thus expanded in chapter xiii of the present work is "Faith and Love." The particular subjects of the "Doctrine of Faith" which he took up are, the Nature of faith alone, nos. 786, 787, 789, 797; Formation of spiritual faith, no. 790; Those in the faith alone Churches who yet do not falsify the Word, no. 800; Nature and effect of genuine faith, no. 803; How man must act in order to be in true faith, no. 803; The particulars of faith of the present church examined, no. 805; Why the Lord came into the world, no. 806; The Lord is not acknowledged when His Divine Humanity is not acknowledged, no. 807; What is saving faith, no. 808; Those in true faith and in spurious faith may use similar doctrinal language, but their ideas are different, no. 810; Falsities are confirmed from the Word by reasonings from the natural man, no. 819; The signification of Peter, no. 820. The "Doctrine of Love" is treated in the following manner: Nature of good works, no. 825; Love to the Lord and love to the neighbour in the third heaven, nos. 827, 828; Spiritual love with the angels of the second heaven, no. 831;
How love becomes spiritual, no. 832; Nature of spiritual-natural love in the first heaven, no. 834. At the close of the chapter the doctrines of "Faith and Love" are treated conjointly in this wise: An abstract of what has been stated above no. 837; Man's faith according to his love or life, no. 939; Love, life, and works are one, no. 842.
These interesting doctrinal subjects are not treated of separately in the paragraphs which have just been referred to, but they seem to grow out of the spiritual explanation of chapter xiii. The Author does not yet seem fully conscious of the fact that the plan which he had hitherto followed in his explanation of the apocalypse is about to undergo a change. For throughout the whole of the following chapter [xiv], he pursues his former plan; i. e. he devotes himself again chiefly to the spiritual explanation of the chapter, and of many collateral passages from other parts of Scripture; and as heretofore he makes again many references to the Arcana Coelestia, "Heaven and Hell," &c. In chapter xv, however, Swedenborg departs from his former plan, and employs himself chiefly in expanding the general doctrines of the New Church, by instilling into them the particulars of doctrine. Henceforth the particular references to the Arcana Coelestia and "Heaven and Hell" cease almost entirely, or at least reduced to much smaller dimensions. Henceforth also he separates distinctly in each paragraph the explanation of doctrine from the explanation of the spiritual sense, so that the reader is at once able to see that two distinct subjects are treated of in almost every numbered paragraph.
The first doctrinal subject which is thus treated of in chapter xv "The Goods of Charity or Good Works." It is discussed in the following order: Introduction, no. 932; Difference between works from God and works from man, no. 933; How man must act so that his works may be done from the Lord, and not from himself, no. 934; A Life according to the Decalogue, no. 935; Man's freedom, no. 936; Man cannot desist from evils: of himself, no. 935; The interior must first be purified, no. 639; When the interior its purified, man's internal is opened, no. 940; When the internal is opened, man comes into a state of illustration, and is admitted into heaven, no. 941; Nature of the affections which are then communicated to him, no. 942; The affections of truth, of good, and of bearing fruit, no. 943; This is the state into which man comes by shunning evils, no. 944; He is then raised out of his proprium, no. 945; He is then in the Lord, and does good work, from the Lord, no. 946.
The next subject treated of in chapters xv and xvi is "Religion, or a Life according to the Commandments."
This doctrine is treated under the following heads: Religion consists in 8 life according to the Commandments, no. 948; In proportion as evils are shunned good flows in, no. 949; First Commandment, nos. 950-957; Second do., nos. 959-963; Third do., no. 965; Fourth do., no. 966; fifth do., nos. 967-979; Sixth do., nos. 981-1010; Seventh do., nos. 1012-1017; Eighth do., nos. 109, 1020; Ninth do., no. 1021; Tenth do., no. 1022; the Ten Commandments in general, nos. 1024-1028.
In the explanation of the Sixth Commandment from nos. 985-1004, the subject of "Conjugial Love" is treated of incidentally at considerable length.
The first doctrinal subject discussed in chapter xvii, viz. from nos. 1047-1064, is "Profanation;" where five different kinds of profanation are explained.
The next, from nos. 1065-1089, is a long discussion respecting "The Word and its Sanctity," where the conjunction especially of the man of the Church with heaven by means of the Word is extensively treated of.
In chapter xviii the following doctrinal subjects receive a thorough treatment:
A. The Athanasian Creed, from nos. 1092-1109, where Swedenborg after explaining the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity, shows how that creed may be made to agree with the genuine truth. The incidental subjects treated of are, thought from light, and thought from love; the former causing presence and the latter conjunction, nos. 1092-1099; thought from light also is contrasted with thought not from light, no. 110.
B. The Doctrine of the Lord, nos. 1111-1131; which is treated of under the following heads: In the Lord is a Trinity, no. 1111; Necessity of a Trinity, no. 1112; Ideas concerning God prevailing in Christendom, no. 1114; Every man in his spiritual idea thinks of God as Man, nos. 1115-1118; God is Man, nos. 1119-1122; God is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, no. 1124; Degrees in the Lord, no. 1125; God is uncreate, no. 1126; All things are created from the Life which is God and Man, nos. 1127, 1129; God is eternal, no. 1130; God is infinite, no. 1133.
C. Divine Omnipotence, nos. 1133-1135, showing that God has all power, man none, no. 1134; and, again, that man is saved according to the laws of the Divine Providence, no. 1136.
D. Divine Providence, containing a discussion of ten Laws of the Divine Providence, nos. 1135-1194.
In chapter xix the following subjects are discussed:
A. The Life of Animals, and the Soul of Plants, showing the influx of the spiritual into the natural world, nos. 1196-1215.
B. Divine Omnipresence and Omniscience, from nos. 1216-1228.
In summing up the doctrinal subjects which are treated in the "Apocalypse Explained," we obtain he following list: 1. The Doctrine of Faith and Love, 2. Good Works, 3. A Life according to the Commandments, 4. Conjugial Love, 5. Profanation, 6. The Word and its Sanctity, 7. The Athanasian Creed, 8. The Doctrine of the Lord, 9. Divine Omnipotence, 10. Divine providence, 11. Influx from the spiritual into the natural world, or the Life of Animals, and the Soul of Plants, 12. Divine Omnipresence and Omniscience.
The "Apocalypse Explained" is brought to an abrupt conclusion in the middle of the explanation of v. 10 of chapter xix. The reason of this is explained in no. 127.-In the first draught copy three additional numbers, viz. nos. 1230-1232 are written out.
In no. 1229, with which the copy the author wrote out for the printer closes, the plan of a work on Divine Love and on Divine Wisdom is given. This work Swedenborg wrote at a subsequent period; although the plan of the real work (no. 122) differs considerably from that laid down in no. 1229 of the present work.
The MS. of the "Apocalypse Explained" had a chequered existence, as may be seen from Document 310, Codices 107-109, and also from Documents 287 and 309, B.
This work was first translated into English by Mr. Wm. Hill, and, revised by the Rev. John Clowes, was printed in London from 1811 to 1815, partly at the expense of the Manchester Printing Society, and partly at the expense of Dr. Hodson. The Index, which is now printed with the English edition of the work, was compiled by J. A. Tulk, Esq.
1759. (107.) De Athanasii Symbolo (The Athanasian Creed), in MS., pp. 42, 8vo.
This work seems to be expansion of the dissertation on the same subject contained in the "Apocalypse Explained" (no. 106) from nos. 1092-1100. It contains a thorough analysis of the "Athanasian Creed," which is, however, not yet reduced into a certain, distinct shape, but consists in a great measure of detached notes and observations on the subject of the Divine Trinity. Among these are many most important statements on the subject of the Lord's glorification.
The preface contains the following statements: "Those things are to be adduced which the Lord spoke in Matthew concerning the last state of the Church; the same words are to he quoted and explained as in the work on 'Heaven and Hell,' no. 1. This signifies the Lord's Advent, and this account the Lord discovered the arcana concerning heaven and hell, the life of man after death, the Word, the Last Judgment, and the doctrine of the Church.
All these things were written in the Latin language, and sent to all the archbishops, and the chief men of this kingdom; and, nevertheless, not a single voice was heard: which is a sign that the things belonging to heaven and the church no longer affect [the minds of men] interiorly, and that the very end of the church is now at hand, nay, that there is no longer any church; for the church is where the Lord is worshipped, and the Word is read with illustration," &c.
From this it follows that the author while writing the above was still in England in 1759; for he says that "he sent the above works to the archbishops, &c. of this kingdom,"* and further that he wrote it before July, 1759; for in that month he left England for Sweden (see no. 106, p. 984). That at that time the greater part of the "Apocalypse Explained" was finished, is proved by the many references which the author makes to that work in the above; the most advanced reference is that to no. 899 on p. 32 of the printed edition.
* That the five works printed in 1758, nos. 101-105, were sent by Swedenborg to the English bishops and the "reformed Lords in Parliament," he states in the "Spiritual Diary" Vol. III, part 2, p. 205; and likewise in the "Apocalypse Revealed," no. 716.
Some doubts have been cast on the genuineness and reliability of the text of the present work on the score of the original MS. of it having been lost, and the only copy of it which we possess being in the handwriting of A. Nordenskjöld.35* The real facts of the case, however, are that none of the Swedenborg MSS. were copied by A. Nordenskjöld himself, but that he and his friends had them copied by a young scholar, named Johansen, as is proved in Document 309, B.
* See the Rev. Samuel Noble on "The Glorification of the Lord's Humanity," &c., p. 55 et seq.
The copy of this and the following work (no. 108), prepared by Johansen is now in the possession of the Swedenborg Society; at its expense both these works were printed in 1840 under the title De Domino et de Athanasii Symbolo. An English translation of this work by Mr. Maxwell was published in 1848 under the title: "The Divine Personality, Incarnation, and Glorification of the Lord, with a critical analysis of the Athanasian Creed." By Emanuel Swedenborg. Dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury. It contains likewise "The Translator's apology" in fifteen pages. Concerning the original MS., see Document 310, Codex 11, no. 2.
1759. (108.) De Domino (The Lord), in MS., pp. 7, 8vo. This MS. consists of the digest of a systematic work on the Lord the Redeemer, which seems to have been intended by the author as a sequel to the "Doctrine of the Lord," which fills nos. 1111 to 1131 of the "Apocalypse Explained."
It contains arguments concerning the Lord's Divine Humanity, drawn, 1. From common observation and belief, 2. From reason, 3. From the Author's experience in the spiritual world, and 4. From Scripture. At the close is the synopsis of a chapter on the "Holy Spirit."
Concerning the time when the above MS. was written, and the place which it occupies among Swedenborg's doctrinal writings, we obtain information in the preface, which follows: "A revelation was made by the Lord concerning heaven and hell; concerning the Last Judgment, viz., that it has been held; concerning the spiritual sense of the Word, viz., that thereby the way to salvation has been revealed; and concerning man's life after death; and this revelation was made so fully and manifestly a year before the present time, and has been communicated [to men], so that all who understand the Latin language may know it; but, nevertheless, the Church does not care for this. They wonder very much in heaven that the Church is in such a state that it pays no regard to its very essentials, but ignores them as matters of no consequence; which is a sign that heavenly things do not occupy the minds of its members, and that they are not seen by them when they are revealed.
"All the articles are to be set forth seriatim in four treatises."
From this preface it appears that the author wrote the above MS. a year after the printing of the Arcana Coelestia, and of the other five treatises which were published in London in 1758, had been finished; which places its composition in the latter part of 1759, after he arrived in Stockholm from England.
It appears also that Swedenborg had then settled upon the plan of what is known as "The four Leading Doctrines of the New Jerusalem," which were published by him in 1763 in Amsterdam. In these "four treatises," we learn, were to be "set forth all the articles," i. e. all the doctrinal subjects of which he had treated in the latter part of the "Apocalypse Explained."
For further particulars respecting the original MS., see no. 107 above, and also Document 310, Codex 11, no. 2.
1759 and 1760. (109.) Summaria Expositio sensus interni Librorum Propheticorum ac Psalmorum Veteris Testamenti; quibus adjecta sunt aliqua de Historicis Verbi (A Summary Exposition of the internal sense of the Prophetical books and the Psalms of the Old Testament; to which are added some things respecting the Historical parts of the Word), in MS., oblong folio, and containing in Dr. Im. Tafel's reprint pp. 125, 8vo.
The author's intention in writing the above work seems to have been to make an abstract of the internal sense of the whole Sacred Scripture, which he was enabled to do after his extensive exploration of the internal sense in the "Apocalypse Explained." For after finishing his summary explanation of the internal sense of the Prophets and Psalms, he took up the historical books of the Old Testament beginning with Genesis, of which he gave an abstract of the internal sense as far as chapter xvi, when he discontinued this work, referring for the rest to the Arcana Coelestia.
Short extracts from this work are given in the "Apocalypse Revealed," nos. 239 and 707; thus showing that it was written before 1766. That it was written before 1763 is, however, proved by the fact that on p. 1 of the original MS, there is a "List of books to be published" (Qu edenda), which was printed by the Author in the preface to the "Doctrine of the Lord," which appeared in 1763. On comparing these two lists, however, it appears that the title of the Continuatio de Ultimo Judicio (Continuation concerning the Last Judgment), which is included in the preface to the "Doctrine of the Lord," is wanting in the list as given in the present work; so that the composition of the present work must be assigned to a time when the author had not yet determined to write the "Continuation concerning the Last Judgment." The preparations for that work are contained in nos. 111 and 113, as will be shown hereafter.
For further particulars respecting the original MS. of this work, and its printed editions, see Document 310, Codex 1.
1760. (110.) Riksdagsskrifter (Papers prepared for the Swedish Diet), in MS., which consist of about 100 pages, folio.
From these papers, which furnish the substance of most of the Documents between nos. 174 and 196 in Vol. I of the present work, it appears that Swedenborg after his return to Sweden in 1759 took a very active part in the affairs of the Swedish Diet. One of his reasons for doing so was probably to furnish evidence to his countrymen of the perfect sanity of his mind; for in the winter of 1759 to 1760 the fact of his having intercourse with the inhabitants of the spiritual world became first publicly known, as is proved by Document 239. For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 56.
1760. (111.) De Ultimo Judicio (The Last Judgment), in MS., pp. 100, oblong folio.
In the composition of his doctrinal writings Swedenborg drew on two sources of information, 1. The internal sense of the Sacred Scripture, and 2. The things heard and seen in the spiritual world.
The two great repertories of the teachings of the internal sense are the Arcana Coelestia (nos. 94 and 95) and the "Apocalypse Explained" (no. 106). In both these works also the author digested into a systematic form the doctrines which lie scattered through the explanation of the spiritual sense; in the Arcana Coelestia he entitled this body of doctrine "The Doctrine of Charity and Faith;" and this he afterwards published separately under the title "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine." In the "Apocalypse Explained" he collected and digested into a systematic form the doctrinal statements which are scattered throughout the work, in the doctrinal treatises extending from nos. 786-1229.
The Author's storehouse of the things heard and seen in the spiritual world are his Memorabilia, which are better known as the "Spiritual Diary." The things recorded in that work up to about 1752, Swedenborg reduced to a systematic form, first in the "memorable relations" appended to each of the chapters in the Arcana Coelestia, and afterwards in the treatise entitled: "Heaven and Hell" (no. 101), and in "The Earths in the Universe" (no. 104). Those which are contained in that work from 1752 to 1760 are worked into a systematic form, 1. In the treatise on "The Last Judgment," published in 1758 (no. 105); 2. In the larger work bearing the same title, which we are now considering; 3. In the treatise on "The Word, from experience" (no. 112); and 4. In the treatise on "The Spiritual World," which constitutes no. 113.
That the present work on "The Last Judgment" was prepared subsequently to that published on the same subject in 1758, is proved by a reference to the former work on p. 40 of the printed copy (Diarium Spirituale, Vol. VII, Appendix I, p. 40), but that the Author wrote it after 1759, is proved by the fact that he quotes in it, S. D. 5980, which was written on December 13, 1759 (see p. 34). Besides, it contains a reference to the "Apocalypse Explained" on p. 52.
Extracts from the present work and also from no. 112 were published by the Author in 1763 under the title, "Continuation concerning the Last Judgment and the Spiritual World" (no. 119). Respecting the contents of this important work, which has not yet been translated into English, and for particulars on the subject of its original MS., see Document 310, Codex 12, no. 2.
1760. (112) De Mundo Spirituali (The Spiritual World), in MS., pp. 30. oblong folio.
This treatise opens with a statement to the following effect, "Several things treating of the Spiritual World were taken from this collection and printed in the work entitled; 'Continuation respecting the Spiritual World'" (no. 119); Its contents are described in Document 310, Codex 12, no. 3, where also additional particulars respecting the original MS. may be found.
1761. (113) De Scriptura Sacra, seu Verbo Domini, ab Experientia (The Sacred Scripture, or the Word of the Lord, from experience), in MS., about 42 pages, 8vo, in the printed copy.
This work, together with the dissertation on the Word in the "Apocalypse Explained," from nos. 1065-1089, seems to have furnished some of the materials which the author made use of in writing the work entitled "The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture," which he published in Amsterdam in 1763. From the following passage it appears that, while preparing the present work he had also in hand those treatises which are generally known as his "Four Leading Doctrines" (see Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, App. II, p. 17): "The spiritual sense of the Word has been revealed by the Lord at the present day, because the doctrine of genuine truth has now been revealed. This doctrine is partly contained in "The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem," and also in those treatises which are now being made public;" i. e. in the "Four Leading Doctrines," which Swedenborg was then preparing for the press.
The contents of the present work, which has not yet been published in the English language, are as follows: 1. A representation of the literal sense of the Word, in which is the spiritual sense; 2. The Word interiorly is living; 3. The difference in General between what is natural, spiritual, and celestial; 4. The Word is holy to its syllables and tittles; 5. The spiritual sense of the Word, and its natural sense; 6. The Word and natural Theology; the latter cannot exist without the former, from which it is derived; 7. Nature of the spiritual sense, and of correspondences; 8. The Lord's marriage with the church, which is the marriage of good and truth in the Word; 9. Those who have for an end splendour and honours in the world and also in heaven, further those who have for an end riches and gain in the world, and also those who have for an end a reputation for learning, do not see nor find any genuine truth in the Word; 10, The ultimate sense of the Word, which is the sense of the letter, by itself, corresponds to the beard and the hair on the head of a man-angel; 11. The wisdom of the angels of the three heavens is from the Lord by the heavens, and to this the sense of the letter serves as a fulcrum and basis;
12. Illustration by the Word; 13. How much a mediate revelation by means of the Word, is superior to the immediate revelation which takes place by spirits; 14. The Word in the heavens; 15. The ancient Word which has been lost; 16 and 17. Concerning the gentiles and the nations outside the Church, who have not the Word, and hence know nothing respecting the Lord and redemption; 18. The conjunction of heaven with the man of the church by the literal sense of the Word; 19. The quality of the natural sense without the spiritual and celestial senses, and vice versa; 20. The power of the sense of the letter; 21. The spiritual sense cannot be seen without doctrine; 28. It is better in many passages that man should understand the Word according to the letter; 23. The marriage of good and truth in the Word; 24. Superiority of the wisdom of the angels in the celestial heavens; 25. The Word among the angels of the spiritual heaven.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 12, no. 1.
1761. (114.) De Prceptis Decalogi (The Precepts of the Decalogue), in MS., pp. 6, 8vo, in the printed edition.
This is a mere outline of a work on this subject, which resulted afterwards in the "Doctrine of Life" (no. 118), published in 1763. For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 12, no. 4.
1761. (115.) Varia de Fide (Observations on faith), in MS., pp. 2, oblong folio.
This tract contains the outlines of the "Doctrine of Faith" (no. 119), published in 1763. It fills pp. 119 and 120, in Section IV of Vol. VIII of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS. See also Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix I, pp. 116 and 114.
1761 to 1763. (116.) Doctrina Nov Hierosolym de Domino (The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the Lord), Amsterdam, 1763, pp. 64, 4to.
1761 to 1763. (117.) Doctrina Nov Hierosolym de Scriptura Skara (The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the Sacred Scripture), Amsterdam, 1763, pp. 54, 4to.
1761 to 1763. (118.) Doctrina Vit pro Nova Hierosolyma ex Prceptis Decalogi (The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem from the precepts of the Decalogue), Amsterdam, 1763, pp. 36, 4to.
1761 to 1763. (119.) Doctrina Vit pro Nova Hierosolyma de Fide (The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting Faith), Amsterdam, 1763, pp. 23, 4to.
These four treatises, which are known under the name of the "Four Leading Doctrines" or the "Four Primary Doctrines, contain the doctrinal derivations from the "Apocalypse Explained," as well as from the things heard and seen in the spiritual world which are recorded in the "Spiritual Diary" (see no. 111). In the preface to the "Doctrine of the Lord," the author declares that "by command of the Lord who appeared before Him, these four doctrinal treatises were to be published." He says also that "by the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem is to be understood Doctrine for the New Church, which is to be instituted at the present day, because the old church has reached its end."
The earlier of these treatises were written simultaneously with no. 113, and thus in the year 1761; for the author states there that "these treatises are now being made public." The "Doctrine of the Lord" also is referred to in the outline of the treatise on the "Precepts of the Decalogue" (no. 114), in article ii, where we read, "Some things are to be introduced here from the work on the Lord."
After the MS. of these four treatises had arrived at a certain degree of advancement, Swedenborg departed in the spring of 1762 for Amsterdam, in order to arrange for the subsequent publication of his theological works in Holland; probably on account of their rejection by the clergy and the leading men of England (see nos. 107 and 108). On July 17, 1762, i. e. on the day when the Emperor Peter III died, he was in Amsterdam, as appears from Document 257, B (p. 490). After finishing the MS., of the "Four Leading Doctrines, he seems to have consigned it to the printer, and returned to Stockholm in the latter Part of the same year, as we have a letter from him dated Stockholm, January 6, 1763. During the winter of 1762-63 he communicated a scientific paper to the Academy of Sciences (no. 121), which was printed in its Transactions in the quarter beginning with April, 1763. In the beginning of June, 1763, he again left for Amsterdam, as appears from Document 283, A, no. 1. On his arrival there he found the "Four Leading Doctrines" (nos. 116-119) ready for delivery.
The "Doctrine of the Lord" was translated into English by Mr. P. Provo,223 and published in 1784 by the London Printing Society. A second edition, corrected by Mr. George Adams, Optician, was printed at his expense in 1786. A French edition was published in London in 1787, under the editorship of Mr. B. Chastanier;222 and Swedish translation in Copenhagen in 1791, and in Stockholm in 1797.
The "Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture" was likewise translated into English by Mr. Provo, and published in 1786 at the expense of the London Printing Society.
A Swedish translation was published in Stockholm in 1597.
The "Doctrine of Life" was translated into English as early as 1763 [?], and published at Plymouth in a quarto edition. In the Memoir of W. Cookworthy, of Plymouth, by his grandson, it is stated that he became acquainted with the writings of Swedenborg in 1760, and that he translated The Doctrine of Life. The second edition, translated by the Rev. J. Clowes of Manchester, was published at the expense of the Manchester Printing Society; the preface to this translation was written by the Rev. Jacob Duch. A French translation appeared in London in 1787.
The "Doctrine of Faith" was translated into English by the Rev. W. Cowherd of Manchester; the Preface was likewise written by him, and it was published in 1792, at the expense of the Manchester Printing Society.
1763. (120.) Continuatio de Ultimo Judicio: et de Mundo Spirituali (Continuation concerning the Last Judgment and the Spiritual World). Amsterdam, 1763, pp. 25, 4to.
The MS. for this little work Swedenborg seems to have written in the early part of 1763, and taken to Amsterdam in June, 1763, (see no. 119); for in paragraph 35 we read, "The Lord has been pleased to open the eyes of my spirit, and to keep them open now for nineteen years." As at the time when he wrote this, he looked upon the year 1744 as that in which his spiritual sight had been opened (see note 165), it follows that he wrote the text of the above in 1763. From nos. 111 and 112 it appears that in the preparation of the above little treatise he drew upon the substance of these two works.
From the fact that the "Four leading Doctrines" are several times quoted in this little work, via. in nos. 45, 48, 76, 51, and 82, it follows that it was composed after them.
An English translation prepared by R. Hindmarsh was published at his expense in 1791; a French translation had been published previously in London in 1787, under the editorship of B. Chastanier.
A long review of the five treatises, nos. 116-120, appeared in an Appendix to the "Monthly Review," for June, 1764, Vol. 30, p. 573. The reviewer begins as follows: "We have here one of the most extraordinary publications that perhaps ever appeared. Notwithstanding, among the many ordinary ones we are pestered with, we frequently meet with some that are very singular. Our readers may have heard of theatrical pieces being exhibited by their Majesties' command, and at the particular desire of several persons of quality; but we presume they have never heard before of a book being published by the express command of the Lord.
At least we remember to have heard but of one performance, viz. the tracts of the Divine Herbert, that was ever honoured by such an imprimatur. Our anonymous author, however, may possibly be possessed of this peculiar privilege; as we find he is himself an occasional inhabitant of the New Jerusalem. It is now several years ago, he says, that he published five other treatises on the following subjects, viz. on the nature of Heaven and Hell; on the New Jerusalem; on the Last Judgment; on the White Horse; on the Planets and the different worlds in the universe: in which treatises he communicated to the Christian world a number of profound and important secrets. We fear, however, the Christian world has been but little edited by these tracts, as me do not remember to have ever heard of them before," &c. The reviewer then proceeds for a page or two to give to his readers an idea of the life in the spiritual world, as sketched by Swedenborg, and winds up by a, declaration that the writer must be insane.
Further reviews are contained in the "Bibliothique de Sciences et des Beaux Arts" for October, November, and December, 1763, p. 550 et seq.; and likewise in the "Journal des Savans" for October, 1764, Dutch edition, p. 528. Both these journals were published at Amsterdam and the Hague.
A digest of all these reviews was inserted in the February number of the "Svenska Mercurius" for 1765 (see Document 283, A, no. 4). These works had been previously announced in the August number of the same journal for 1764 (see Document 283, A, no. 3).
These five treatises are also reviewed in J. A. Ernesti's ANeue Theologische Bibliothek," Vol. IV, no. 8, 1763, pp. 725-1733.
1763. (121.) Beskrifning huru Inlggningar ske uti Marmorskifvor, til Bord eller annan Hus-zirat (Description of the Mode in which marble-slabs are inlaid for tables and other ornaments). Contained in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences for the months of April, May, and June, 1763, Vol. XXIV, pp. 107-113.
This paper constitutes Document 202 in the present collection of Documents.
1762 and 1763. (122.) De Divino Amore (The Divine Love), in MS., pp. 22, oblong folio.
1763. (123.) De Divina Sapientia (The Divine Wisdom), in MS., pp. 46, oblong folio.
A synopsis of the former of these two treatises is contained in A. E. 1229; yet both treatises seem to have been written at the same time, as they are contained in the same original codex.
In the second of these treatises we read in no. VII, 1., "I have been in daily intercourse with angels and the spirits of the departed from 1744 to the present day, and thus during nineteen years" from which it follows that the treatise on the "Divine Wisdom" was written in 1763. That on "Divine Love, however, was probably commenced by the author soon after his return to Sweden in the autumn of 1762.
The object of the treatise on "Divine Love" is to show that the Lord alone is love itself, because life itself, and that men and angels are only recipients of life. It further shows that man, and hence: humanity in general, in order to be forms receptive of Divine Love, must be forms of use in one complex. The nature of uses as the expressions of the affections is afterwards shown; and likewise that man in proportion as he becomes an affection of uses fulfils his destiny in the world, and becomes truly a man.
In the treatise on "Divine Wisdom" man's formation is first minutely described, and then an analogy is drawn between man's first formation and his regeneration. Afterwards the nature of man's spirit is explained, and it is shown that all angels and spirits had to be born as men on one of the earths. Then follows a discussion on the conjunction of love and wisdom, charity and faith; and a definition is given of love and charity on the one hand, and of wisdom and faith on the other; faith is defined as knowing and thinking spiritual, moral, and civil truths, and charity as willing and doing them. In conclusion it is shown how the Lord as the sun of the spiritual world sustains the whole universe. In an appendix follows "the angelic idea respecting the creation of the universe by the Lord."
Both of these treatises were identified at an early period with the "Apocalypse Explained," of which they are, however, thoroughly independent. For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 13.
1763 (124.) Sapientia Angelica de Divino Amore et de Divina Sapientia (Angelic Wisdom respecting the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom). Amsterdam, 1763, pp. 151, 4to.
This treatise explains the philosophical foundation on which the doctrinal system of the New Jerusalem rests. As its title indicates, the author acquired a knowledge of the subjects discussed therein chiefly among the angels of heaven. As preparatory steps towards this work may be considered the "Doctrine of the Lord," in the "Apocalypse Explained," nos. 1111-1131, and the dissertations on "The Life of animals and the soul of plants," showing the influx of the spiritual into the natural world, and on "Divine Omnipresence and Omniscience" contained in the same work from nos. 1196-1228; and especially also the treatises on "Divine Love" and "Divine Wisdom" discussed above (nos. 124 and 123).
The MS. of this work was no doubt ready for the press, when the author "in the beginning of June left Stockholm by sea for Holland'"(Document 253, A, no. 1). After arriving there he published the present work which bears the imprint of 1763, and the following work "Angelic Wisdom respecting the Divine Providence" (no. 125), which was published in 1764. After finishing these works, "he went over to England to deliver them to the Royal Society," and returned to Sweden in August, 1764 (see Document 251, p. 402).
The first English translation of this work was prepared by Dr. Tucker of Hull, and printed at the expense of the Manchester Printing Society in 1758. A Swedish translation was printed at Copenhagen in 1795 under the title, Englawisheten om den gudomliga Krleken. Since then it has been published in the German,* French, Italian and Icelandic languages. A portion of it has also appeared in Russian.
* The first German translation of this work was printed in Stockholm, in 1816, at the expense of the New Church friends in London.
1763 and 1764. (125.) Sapientia Angelica de Divina Providentia (Angelic Wisdom respecting the Divine Providence). Amsterdam, 1764, pp. 214, 4to.
This work is based on a dissertation bearing the same title in the "Apocalypse Explained," nos. 1135-1194. The author no doubt wrote it in Amsterdam in 1763 while he was seeing the "Divine Love and Wisdom" through the press. It was translated into English by Dr. Tucker of Hull, and printed in 1790 at the expense of the Manchester Printing Society. The first American edition was published in Boston in 1796, by Messrs. Thomas and Andrews. Since then it has been published in the German, French, Italian, and Polish languages.
1764. (126.) Doctrina de Charitate (Doctrine of Charity), in MSS., p. 49, large oblong folio.
This treatise is probably that which, in the preface to the "Doctrine of the Lord" (no. 118), was promised under the title Sapientia Angelica de Vita (Angelic Wisdom respecting Life). That it was written in 1764 is proved by a reference in it to the "Doctrine of Faith," the "Apocalypse Explained," the "Divine Providence," and the "Divine Love and Wisdom;" see Vol. VIII of Swedenborg's Photo-lithographed MSS., Section II, p. 37.
For further particulars respecting the original MS., and the printed copies of the work, see Document 310, Codex 11, no. 3.
1764-1766. (127.) Apocalypsis Revelata, in qua deteguntur arcana qu ibi prdicta sunt, et hactenus recondita latuerunt (The Apocalypse Revealed, wherein are disclosed the mysteries there foretold, which have hitherto remained concealed), Amsterdam, 1766, pp. 629, 4to.
This work marks a new period among the Author's writings in this respect, that while writing it he saw clearly from the Lord the fact that the Book of Revelation from beginning to end treats of nothing else than the establishment of a New Church on earth which is to be called the New Jerusalem, and which is to take the place of the consummated Christian Church.
The doctrine which the Author set forth on this subject in the Arcana Coelestia was of a more general kind; and on the ground that all new churches had been hitherto established apart from the old church and among the Gentiles, he extended in that work the application of this principle also to the Church of the New Jerusalem which is to succeed to the First Christian Church. In the present work, however, he particularized his teaching by stating distinctly that the New Jerusalem Church is to be established among the former members of the First Christian Church; for in no. 69 he declares that "by the seven churches in chapters ii and iii of the Revelation are described all who are in the Christian Church who have religion, and of whom the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, can be formed."
The particular doctrine on this subject he perceived while engaged in writing the "Apocalypse Explained," especially while writing the explanation of the internal sense of chapter xii; and this doctrine he seems to have perceived in all its clearness when in chapter xix he came to treat of the white horse. The great distinction between the "Apocalypse Explained," and the "Apocalypse Revealed," consists in this, that while in the former work the doctrine of the internal sense is applied to the church universal, in the latter it is treated exclusively in its bearing on the New Jerusalem Church, and the relation it occupies in respect to the consummated Christian Church. This is the reason why the Author when he saw the special signification of the Look of Revelation, suddenly ceased all his labours in connection with the "Apocalypse Explained," so that this work terminates with the explanation of the tenth verse of chapter xix.
This, therefore, is an occasion where Swedenborg, by the elaboration of one work, was evidently prepared for writing another, and where, in the second work, he has particularized the teachings of the first.
The year 1765, during which Swedenborg was engaged upon the "Apocalypse Revealed," marks a new period in his theological writings also in this respect, that during it he ceased entering his spiritual experiences in his Memorabilia or "Spiritual Diary," and began to present them in the attractive form of those memorable relations which are appended to each of the chapters of the work under notice and which he introduced into all the works which he published during the remainder of his life. The last date in his "Spiritual Diary," on the last page in the MS., is April 29, 1765.
Swedenborg must have entered upon the preparation of the "Apocalypse Revealed" soon after his return to Sweden in 1764. He arrived there, as we have seen, in August. In the beginning of the summer of 1765, he started again for Holland via Gottenburg, where he made the acquaintance of Dr. Beyer, and where that memorable event occurred, which is related in Document 280. On October 1, he wrote to Dr. Beyer from Amsterdam, "As an opportunity offers, I make use of it to send you the beginning of the 'Apocalypse Revealed' so far as it is printed" (see Document 221). On April 8, 1766, he writes, "I have at last brought the Book of Revelation to a close," and again "I am now going from this place to England, where some noise is probably being made on account of the bishops of England being somewhat severely treated in the memorable relations; yet necessity required it," (Document 223). From England he departed for Stockholm towards the end of August, as appears from Documents 227 and 229, and he arrived in that town on September 8 (see Document 230).
A long and on the whole satisfactory review of this work was printed in Dr. J. A. Ernesti's Neue Theologische Bibliothek for 1766, no. 8; the greater part of this Dr. J. Ros?translated into Swedish, and published in the April number of his Preste-Tidningar (Clerical News) for 1768, with notes. The publication of this review was the cause of his difficulty with the Consistory of Gottenburg, of which at thorough account is given in Document 245.
This work was translated into English by Dr. Tucker of Hull, and printed in 1791 at the expense of the Manchester Printing Society. It was subsequently translated into the Swedish, German, and French languages.
1766. (128.) Methodus Nova inveniendi Longitudines Locorum terra marique (New Method of finding the Longitude of Places on land and at sea). [Amsterdam, 1766,] pp. 8, 4to.
This little scientific tract, which is in great measure a reprint of no. 30, was printed without date and without the name of the town where published. That it was printed in Amsterdam in 1766, appears from Document 25.
For further particulars, see Document 203.
1766. (129.) De Equo et Hieroglyphis (On the Horse and Hieroglyphis), in MS.
Soon after his return home in 1766 Swedenborg seems to hare submitted this tract to the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm; for he refers in it to the "Apocalypse Revealed." It constitutes Document 300, where further particulars respecting the original MS. and the printed copies may be found.
1766. (130.) Index Verborum, Nominum, et Rerun in Appocalypsi Revelata (Index of Words, Names, and Things contained in the Apocalypse Revealed), in MS., pp. 75, quarto.
Of this Index there are two copies preserved in Swedenborg's handwriting. The first is the rough copy, and the second a fair copy written out for the printer. Of the latter a copy was prepared in 1782 under the superintendence of Aug. Nordenskjöld; this was printed in 1815 at the expense of Mr. J. A. Tulk.228 That gentleman also published an English translation at his own expense.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 7, no. 1.
1766. (131.) Quinque Memorabilia (Five memorable Relations), in MS., pp. 13, folio.
These Memorable Relations were copied by young Johansen,260 in 1785, as is shown in Document 309, B (p. 507). Concerning the original MS., see Document 310, Codex 1, no. 2. The copy prepared by Johansen is now in the possession of the Swedenborg Society. Its contents were published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1846 in the "Spiritual Diary," Part VII, Appendix 1, pp. 124 to 133. An English translation had been previously published in the "New Jerusalem Magazine" for 1790, pp. 43-46 and 76-84.
The subjects treated of in these memorable relations are as follows: 1. The nature of the merely natural man; 2. The first state of man after death; 3. The consummation of the age, the destruction of the world, and the end of the church;
4. The sun of the spiritual world, and the Lord's coming in the clouds; 5. The abomination of desolation. The time, when these five memorable relations were written, may be determined by their form; for in 1765 the "Spiritual Diary" was brought to a close, as we have shown in no. 127, and the subject-matter of it was continued afterwards in "memorable relations," like the above. The subjects treated in the above relations are, however, similar to those discussed in the "Apocalypse Revealed," so that they were probably written soon after that work was finished.
1766. (132.) Colloquia cum Angelis (Conversation with angels), in MS., pp. 3, folio.
These conversations are written in the same Codex, in which the rough draught of Swedenborg's Index to the "Apocalypse Revealed" is contained, wherefore they must have been written about the same time. They consist of aphorisms on various spiritual subjects in seventeen paragraphs. They have not yet been translated into English.
For further particulars respecting. the original MS., and the printed copies, see Document 310, Codex 7, no. 3.
1766 and 1767. (133.) Opus Primum de Amore Conjugiali (Swedenborg's first work on Conjugial Love), in MS. This work, it seems, was not preserved by the Author, as it was not among the MSS. which his heirs committed to the charge of the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Two indexes of it are however preserved, from which we are able to obtain minute information respecting its contents. It appears that this work consisted of 2055 paragraphs. The following are the headings of the chapters: I. On Conjugial Love 1. Marriages in heaven; 2. The origin of conjugial love; 3. The delights of truly conjugial love; 4. The connection of conjugial love with all the loves of heaven; 5. On masculine and feminine conjugial love in particular, and the intelligence of either sex; 6. The marriage of good and truth; 7. The differences and variety of conjugial love among men according to the states of the church; 8. The increase of love truly conjugial, and the decrease of love not truly conjugial; 9. Conjugial similarity and dissimilarity; 10. The causes of cold, of separations and divorces, among married partners; 11. Polygamy or a plurality of wives; 12. Betrothals and nuptials; 13. The difference between the love of sex among beasts and among men;14. The change of state with a woman and a man by marriage, whereby a maiden becomes a wife, and a youth a husband;
15. The state of widows and widowers, and reiterated marriages; 16. The Lord's marriage with the church; 17. The correspondence of the marriage of the Lord and the Church with the marriages of angels and men; 18. Natural conjugial potency and spiritual conjugial potency; 19. The causes of love, friendship, and favour among married partners, 20. The love of infants or storge; 21. The conjunction of conjugial love with love of infants or storge; 22. The state of two married partners after death. II. On Scortatory Love. 1. Jealousy; 2. Fornication; 3. Pellicacy; 4. The lust of varieties; 5. The lust of defloration; 6. The lust of violation; 7. The lust of seducing innocencies; 8. On concubinage; 9. On adultery; 10. The opposition of conjugial love and scortatory love; 11. The correspondence of scortations and adulteries with the violation of spiritual marriage, viz. of that of good and truth. III. Miscellaneous Subjects. 1. The perception and wisdom proper to man and to woman, and the conjunction of both thereby; a. The duties proper to man and to woman, and the conjunction of both thereby; 3. The transcription of man's own love into conjugial love with the wife; 4. Chastity and unchasteness; 5. The faculties, inclinations, affections and dualities of man and woman, and their conjunction by marriage; 6. Proprium with man and woman, and their transcription into conjugial love; 7. Coldness in marriages; 8. The difficulties of understanding the conjunctions between married partners, and the varieties resulting thence; 9. Love truly conjugial.
The number of memorable relations in the first and second treatises on Conjugial Love are about the same although a number of those that are recorded in the Index to the first work do not appear in the second work, and vice versa.
On comparing the contents of the two works, there is no doubt that the second work was extracted from the first; yet a considerable number of subjects that are discussed in the first work have been passed over in the second.
The first preparations for this work were 1. A dissertation on conjugial love in the "Apocalypse Explained," from nos. 955-1004, and "A collection of aphorisms on marriage and adultery in 82 paragraphs, which closes the "Spiritual Diary." Respecting the two indexes of this work, of which the first reaches to no. 83, and the second embraces the whole work, see Document 310, Codex 7, no. 2.
1767. (134.) Memorabilia de Conjugio (Memorabilia on Marriage), in MSS., pp. 19, large oblong folio.
This collection of memorabilia respecting marriage, in the original catalogue, bears the title simply of De Conjugio (On marriage).
It consists of detached experiences and aphorisms on marriage without any logical connection, in the style of the "Spiritual Diary." In the final paragraph it contains a reference to the excerpta Prima, i. e. to the index to the antecedent work; it likewise contains a reference to the Index to the Arcana Coelestia (no. 100), and also to that to the "Apocalypse" (no 130); so that there is no difficulty in determining the date of its composition. There is no doubt that it forms another of those preparatory works which the author needed in order to enable him to write his second work on Conjugial Love, viz. no. 135.
For further particulars respecting the original MS. and the printed copy of this work, see Document 310, Codex 14.
1767 and 168. (235.) Deliti Sapienti de Amore Conjugiali; post quas sequuntur voluptates insani de Amore Scortatorio, ab Emanuele Swedenborg, Sueco (The delights of wisdom concerning Conjugial Love; after which follow the pleasures of insanity concerning Scortatory Love, by Emanuel Swedenborg, A Swede). Amsterdam, 1768, pp. 328, 4to.
This work was no doubt extracted by the Author from no. 133. Much of the information contained in it, as the title shows, was derived from the angels. The Author seems to have brought the MS. to a close in the spring of 1768, when he left Stockholm in the month of May (see Document 272, p. 624), with the view of having it printed. On October 1, 1768, he wrote to Dr. Beyer from Amsterdam, "By Captain Magnus Sjgrd I send you a copy of the recently published work on 'Conjugial and Scortatory Love.' Should any of the friends in Gottenburg desire it, you will find on a slip enclosed in the book, the address where it may be purchased in Amsterdam." On April 23, 1769, he wrote to the Doctor still from Amsterdam, "The book is very much in demand in Paris, and in many places in Germany."
This is the first of his theological works to which Swedenborg affixed his named as author, and on p. 328 he gives a list of the works that had hitherto been published by him (see Document 284, A). Fifty copies of this work were confiscated in 1769, at the custom-house in Norrkping at the instigation of Bishop Filenius (see Document 215, pp. 306 and 373). Concerning the fate of these confiscated works see Document 286, p. 710.
In the letter which Cuno wrote to Swedenborg, dated March 8, 1769, he says, "The Dutch only have noticed your work, the last but one, treating on 'Conjugial Love,' and they reviewed it with great judgment and praiseworthy moderation.
The Amsterdam critic has suspended his judgment until the promised work on the new doctrine in its fulness, which is promised within two years, make its appearance" (see Document 256, p. 468). The first English translation of this work, prepared by the Rev. John Clowes of Manchester, was published in 1792 at the expense of the Manchester Printing Society. Since then it has been published in the French, German, and Swedish languages.
1768. (136.) De sensu naturali et spirituali Verbi (The natural and spiritual sense of the Word), in MS.
This explanation of the natural and spiritual sense of the Word, Swedenborg sent to Prelate tinger, enclosed in a letter. It constitutes a portion of Document 235; where further particulars respecting it may be found.
1768. (137.) De Justificatione et Bonis Operibus; Colloquia cum Calvino, &c. (Justification and good works; conversations with Calvin, &c.), in MS.
1768. (138.) Sciagraphia Doctrin Nov Ecclesi (Outlines of the Doctrine of the New Church), in MS.
These two tracts which are contained in Codex 48 consist of preparatory papers for the "Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church" (so. 139), which Swedenborg published in 1769. The substance of the first paper in no. 137, which treats of "Justification and good works among the Roman Catholics," constitutes nos. 2-8 in the published work. And the substance of the second paper where it is shown that the dogma of justification by faith alone was introduced by the Reformers from the Catholic Church, in an enlarged form, constitutes nos. 17-29 in the same work. The dogma of a Trinity of Divine Persons, which constitutes the substance of Swedenborg's conversations with Calvin, is treated from nos. 30 to 40 in the same work. The tract closes with an abstract of the genuine doctrine respecting God the Saviour Jesus Christ.
The second tract contains an abstract of the "Brief Exposition," &c. in 33 paragraphs. For further particulars with respect to the original MS. and the printed copy, see Document 310, Codex 45.
1768 and 1769. (139.) Summaria Exposition Doctrin Nov Ecclesi, qu per Novam Hierosolymam in Apocalypsi intelligitur, ab Emanuel Swedenborg, Sueco (A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church, which is understood by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse). Amsterdam,1769, 4to.
Respecting this treatise the Author says in the preface, "After having during the course of some years published several works, larger and smaller, concerning the New Jerusalem, by which is understood a New Church about to be instituted by the Lord, and after the Apocalypse had been revealed, I resolved to issue by the press the doctrine of that Church in its fulness, and thus in its entirety. As this, however, is the work of a few years, I deemed it useful to publish meanwhile a sort of outline of it, in order that a general idea of that Church and of its doctrine may first be obtained; for when the generals precede, all the particulars as they exist in their whole breadth, are able to appear in light; since they enter into the generals, as homogeneous things into their receptacles. The present summary, however, is not submitted for critical examination, as its contents will be demonstrated in full in the promised work; it is only issued as a preliminary notice."
The object of the present work is: 1. To give a general outline the New Church," which is done in no. 16; and 2. To show the discordance between the doctrines of the present Church and those of the New Church: this is done under twenty-five heads from nos. 17 to 108. Afterwards follows a chapter on the dogma of the imputation of the merit of Christ (nos. 109-113), which is succeeded by two memorable relations which are taken from the "Apocalypse Revealed" and in the form of a "concluding appendix" (Appendix coronaria) is added the Creed of the New Heaven and the New Church in a universal and in a particular form, which is again followed by three memorable relations taken from the "Apocalypse Revealed."
This "Brief Exposition" was no doubt written by the author in Amsterdam, while he saw the treatise on "Conjugial Love" through the press. On March 15, 1769, he wrote to Dr. Beyer respecting it, as follows, "I had the pleasure of receiving yours of November 23, 1768. The reason I did not answer it sooner was, that I postponed until a little work was published entitled, 'A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church, signified by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation,' in which are fully shown the errors of the hitherto received doctrine of justification by faith alone, and the imputation of the righteousness of the merit of Christ. This treatise was sent by me to all the clergy in Holland, and will come into the hands of the most eminent in Germany.
I have been informed that they have attentively perused it, and that some have already discovered the truth, while others do not know which may to turn; for what is written therein is sufficient to convince any one that the above-mentioned doctrine is the cause of our having at the present day no theology in Christendom" (See Document 240, p. 273). Under the date of April 23 he wrote to Dr. Beyer, "Of the work last published entitled 'Brief Exposition,' &c. I send you only one copy, which you will please keep for yourself alone, and not communicate to any one else: for it produces a change in the whole of that theology which has up to the present day prevailed in Christendom and partly sets forth also that theology which will be for the New Church" (See Document 341, p. 275). Under the date of November 17, 1769, he wrote to Count Höpken, "It is certain that the 'Brief Exposition,' &c. meets with adverse' criticisms; yet only in the beginning, as long as men are in darkness on account of preconceived and false principles. Since, however, that which is rational has light within itself, even in theological matters, therefore, the truth will gradually be seen and acknowledged, as has been the case in many places abroad ....When this preliminary treatise was finished, the whole heaven from east to west, and from south to north, appeared to me covered with beautiful roses of a deep scarlet colour, so that all who were present with me in the world of spirits, were astonished at it; this was a sign of the assent and joy of the New Heaven" (See Document 244, p. 251). The same phenomenon is described by Swedenborg in Document 301, "A Sketch of an Ecclesiastical History of the New Church," where we read, "When the 'Brief Exposition,' &c., was published, the angelic heaven from the east to the west, and from the south to the north, appeared of a deep scarlet colour with the most beautiful flowers. This took place before myself, and before the kings of Denmark and others."
In the same "Sketch," &c. we read, "In the spiritual world there was inscribed on all my books 'The Lord's advent.' The same I also wrote by command on two copies in Holland." One of these copies has been recently discovered; it is a copy of the "Brief Exposition," &c. For further particulars, see footnote to Document 301, p. 757.
On April 26, 1769, Swedenborg left Amsterdam for Paris (see Document 241), and proceeded thence to London, where he English edition of the "Brief Exposition," to be published. This appeared under the following title: "A Brief Exposition Doctrine of the New Church, understood in the Apocalypse by the New Jerusalem; wherein is also demonstrated, that throughout all the Christian World the worshipping of Three Gods is received from the Creed of St. Athanasius.
By Emanuel Swedenborg, a native of Sweden. London: Printed by M. Lewis, No. 1, Paternoster Row, 1769." Mr. Robert Hindmarsh adds to this in the Appendix to his "Rise and Progress," &c., AM. Lewis was probably the successor of J. Lewis, who announced the publication of the Arcana Coelestia." There is reason to suppose that Mr. Merchant, who translated [Vol. II of] the Arcana, also translated this work, and not Mr. Cookworthy." A second English edition of this work translated by Mr. R. Hindmarsh, and published at his expense, appeared in 1789. The first German translation appeared in 1786 in Breslau under the following title, "Emanuel von Swedenborg's, &c. Revisino der bisherigen Theologie, sowohl der Protestanten als der Rmisch-Katholischen." This translation contained also an answer to the question: "Whether it is a settled matter that Swedenborg was a fanatic?" where the author showed that not a single characteristic of a fanatic, as laid down by less, existed in Swedenborg.
1769. (140.) De Commercio Anim et Corporis, quod creditur fieri vel per Influxum physicum, vel per Influxum spiritualem, vel per Harmoniam prstabilitam, ab Emanuele Swedenborg (The Intercourse between the Soul and the Body, which is supposed to take place either by physical influx, or by spiritual influx, or by pre-established harmony). London, 1769.
There is reason to believe that this little work was written as an answer to a letter addressed to the Author by the philosopher, Emanuel Kant, as appears from Document 272, pp. 622 et seq. Swedenborg himself wrote to Dr. Beyer respecting it as follows: "I send you herewith a little tract which I published in London on 'The Intercourse between the Soul and the Body.' It has been sent to the various scientific societies and to the universities in England and France. You will please to read the very last lines in it. This tract is now probably translated into English" (see Document 244, p. 307). This letter was written immediately after his return home in the beginning of October, 1769.
The English translation to which Swedenborg alluded above was prepared by the Rev. Thomas Hartley, and was published in 1770 under the following title, "A Theosophic Lucubration on the Nature of Influx, as it respects the communication and Operation of Soul and Body.
By the Hon. and Learned Emanuel Swedenborg. Now first translated from the Original Latin, 4to., London: M. Lewis, 1, Paternoster Row; and W. Heard, in Piccadilly. London, 1750." Extracts from the elaborate preface of Mr. Hartley constitute Document 259, A, pp. 500 et seq. A second English edition appeared in 1784 under the following title: "A Theosophic Treatise on the Nature of Influx, as it respects the Communication and Operation of Soul and Body;" to this edition were added Sandel's Eulogium (Document 4), Pernety's Account of Swedenborg (Document 6), and seven Letters addressed by Swedenborg to various persons which are included in our Section IX. This edition also included Mr. Hartley's preface addressed to the English Universities; it was printed at the expense of the London Printing Society. A third edition was printed by Mr. R. Hindmarsh in 1788, at his own expense.
The first English translation was noticed in the "Monthly Review," for June, 1770, pp. 445-449. The reviewer in referring to the title of the book says, "This mystical title will lend our readers to expect somewhat rhapsodical and chimerical in the work itself; and they will not be disappointed. It is a curious performance, and discovers some good sense and learning in the writer, at the same time that he appears to be a visionary and enthusiast. Several other Latin works have been published by him, but this Lucubration, though printed, the translator tells us, was never before published. He addresses it particularly 'to the honourable and learned Universities of this realm, and offers it to the public, chiefly, he says, as a means to introduce the knowledge of the other Latin works of this writer, which though long ago printed, remain yet as a treasure hidden in a field.' We cannot but express our doubt whether such a publication would be attended with many real and solid advantages. Perhaps it would rather tend to confuse the mind, and be a source of endless conceits and fancies" [!].
The reviewer afterwards reproduces the greater part of Swedenborg's Autobiography (Document 2) affixed to Mr. Hartley's translation; and adds some of the translator's own testimony respecting Swedenborg's character, and then continues, "We apprehend that Baron Swedenborg is to be classed with Jacob Behmen,40 our countryman William Law (see footnote to p. 498), and other mystic writers. Jacob, if we remember right, talks of hot, cold, dry qualities of the soul, and if he means anything, we suppose means something of the same kind with the present author, who appears, however, to he much his superior in learning and abilities.
Publications of this kind do not commonly merit any particular attention, but as this gentleman's character and pretension are of so very singular and extraordinary nature, we thought that something more than a general account was suitable to the nature of our own work and would be acceptable to our readers; for which reason we shall add the following marvellous relation of what is said to have passed in one of the strange reveries of our learned visionary." Here follows the "Memorable Relation" contained in no. 19 of the work. The reviewer concludes thus, "The reader will make his own reflections on this wonderful narrative. The writer of the preface says what can be said in defence of his author, and hopes that his discoveries may be useful to check that propensity to materialism which it is to be feared too much prevails at present, but we apprehend will require some different methods to prevent its progress and growth."
The first German translation of this work appeared in l772 under the title, "Emanuel Swedenborg's Tractat von der Verbindung der Seele mit dem Krper;" a second edition was published at Jena in 1776, and in the same year another edition was issued from Frankfort and Leipzig.
A French translation of this little work appeared in London in 1785 under the title: "Du commerce tabli entre l'me et le corps, ou Trait e la Liaison qui subsiste entre le spirituele et materiel." This edition also was enriched by a French translation of Mr. Hartley's preface.
In 1843 Dr. Im Tafel published a second edition of the original Latin.
A notice of this little work from the pen of Prof. J. H. Lidén258 appeared in Stockholm in the "Almnna Tidningatr" for July 5, 1770; see Document 282, p. 702. He says in this connection, "I am curious as to what the English journalists will say about these 'Swedenborgiana.' The author has presented a sufficient number of copies to the Royal Society, to Sion College, the bishops, and the universities. He has also promised to send some copies for the libraries in Upsal and Stockholm."
1769. (141.) Responsum ad Epistolam ab amico ad me scriptam (An answer to a letter written to me by a friend). London, 1769, pp. 3, 4to.
This letter which Swedenborg addressed to the Rev. T. Hartley in August, 1769, was published by the latter gentleman during that year in the Latin and English languages. It constitutes Document 2 in the present collection, where further particulars respecting it may be found.
This letter was noticed by Prof. J. H. Lidén in the Almnna Tidningar for July 7, 1770.
1769. (142.) Qustiones Novem de Trinitate, &c. ad Emanuelem Swedenborg proposit a Thoma Hartley; tum illius responsa (Nine Queries concerning the Trinity, &c., proposed by Thomas Hartley to Emanuel Swedenborg; with his answers), in MS. pp. 6, 4to.
The tract, which was published by R. Hindmarsh in 1775 under the above title, consisted originally of portions of letters exchanged between Thomas Hartley and Emanuel Swedenborg. Mr. Hindmarsh states in the Appendix to his "Rise and Progress," &c., that these Queries were printed by him in the original Latin, at his own expense, from a manuscript copy received from Mr. Hartley in 1786 [1785?]. In 1786 he also printed at his own expense an English translation of these Queries prepared by himself.
1769. (143.) Canones Nov Ecclesi seu Integra Theologia Nov Ecclesi (The Canons of the New Church, or the Entire Theology of the New Church), in MS., pp. 45, folio.
The original MS. of this work is lost, but two copies of it are still in existence. One of these copies, which was taken by young Johansen260 under the superintendence of Aug. Nordenskjöld (see Document 309, p. 507), is now in the possession of the Swedenborg Society, and the other which was owned by Major Gyllenh"Al303 near Skara was presented to the editor of these Documents by Dr. A. Kahl307 of Lund. These copies differ in some particulars; e. g. the title, Canones Nov Ecclesi, &c. occurs only in Johansen's, and not in the Skara, copy. In the Skara, copy, on the other hand, there is the following introduction to the work, which is missing in Johansen's copy; "The New Church could not be instituted before the Last Judgment had been accomplished, because otherwise holy things would have been profaned. It was promised that the spiritual sense of the Word would then be disclosed, and the Advent of the Lord, who is the Word, would take place. The reason why but few at the present day have religion is, 1. Because it is not known that the Lord is the Only God who rules heaven and earth; and thus that He is God in person and in essence, in whom is a Trinity: when yet the whole of religion is based on the knowledge of God, and on His adoration and worship. 2. Because it is not known that faith is nothing else but truth; and because it is not known whether that which is called faith is truth, or not. 3. Because it is not known what charity is, nor consequently what evil and good are. 4. Because it is not known what eternal life is.
In proportion as the truth of life are made matters of life, in the same proportion the truths of faith become truths of faith; and it is not possible for them to become such in any other way. Some things are matters of knowledge, and not of faith."
In Johansen's copy, also, which has furnished the test for the printed copy, this statement occurs which is omitted in the printed copy: "In this work is contained the 'Universal Theology of the New Church,' which is understood by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation." This statement is of importance, because it shows that it is a preparatory work for the "True Christian Religion," which also bears the title, "Universal Theology of the New Church." This fact is also proved by its having been written after 1768; for it contains references not only to the "Doctrine of the Lord," on pp. 19 and 32, and to the "Apocalypse Revealed," on pp. 8 and 55, but also to "Conjugial Love" (which was published in 1768), on p. 46.
Concerning the place which the original MS. occupied in the catalogue prepared by Swedenborg's heirs (Document 304), see Document 310, Codex 11, no. 2. This MS., according to a statement by the amanuensis, consisted originally of 45 pages in folio; but of these pp. 29-32, and pp. 39 and 40 were missing at the time when the copy was made. i, e. between 1782 and 1788.
The subjects which are treated of in the present work in the form of aphorisms are, 1. God in general, 2. The Lord the Redeemer, 3. Redemption, 4. The Holy Spirit, 5. The Trinity. The last of these subjects is treated at greater length than the preceding ones.
This MS. was first printed in 1840, at the expense of the Swedenborg Society, under the following title, "Canones, seu Integra Theologia Nov Ecclesi. E Deo uno et Infinito. De Domino Redemptore; et de Redemptione. De Spiritu Sancto. De Divina Trinitate."
1769. (144.) Dicta probantia Veteris et Novi Testamenti, collecta et breviter explicata (Corroborating Passages from the Old and New Testaments, collected and briefly explained), in MS., pp. 39, oblong folio.
This work consists of scriptural passages collected under doctrinal heads. These passages, however, are collected not only from those books of the Sacred Scripture which contain a spiritual meaning, but also from the writings of the Apostles. In fact one of the leading objects of Swedenborg in the present compilation seems to have been to register the teachings of the apostles on the various doctrinal subjects; since under each head he first gives the passages from the apostolic writings, then from the Gospels and the Book of Revelation, and finally from the Prophets.
As the only one of Swedenborg's works, where he quotes liberally from the apostolic writings is the "True Christian Religion," it is plain that the present is one of the preparatory treatises for that great work. This appears also from the doctrinal headings to the various chapters or sections. That it belongs to the later period of Swedenborg's doctrinal writings, is also proved by a reference to the "Apocalypse Revealed" (published in 1766), on p. 12 of the printed copy. As this collection was not required for the treatise on "Conjugial Love," published in 1768, nor for the treatise on "Influx," nor the one published under the title of "Brief Exposition" in 1769, the time of its composition must be fixed in 1769, after the publication of the "Brief Exposition."
One third of the whole of the present work consists of passages showing the nature of the Lord's Coming, the Consummation, the Last Judgment, and the New Church. Some of the passages under these general headings are explained as to their spiritual meaning.
This MS. was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in 1845 under the above title; that which it bears in the Official Catalogue is "Biblical Sentences collected under leading heads."
Further particulars respecting the contents and history of the present work will be found in Document 310, Codex 49.
1769-1771. (145.) Vera Christiana Religio, continens Universam Theologiam Nov Ecclesi a Domino apud Danielem Cap. Vii. 13, 14, et in Apocalypsi Cap. Xxi. 1, 2, prdict, ab Emanuele Swedenborg, Domini Jesu Christi servo (True Christian Religion, containing the Universal Theology of the New Church, which was predicted by the Lord in Daniel vii, 13-14, and in the Apocalypse xxi, 1, 2, by Emanuel Swedenborg, Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ). Amsterdam, 1771, pp. 541, 4to.
This work was announced by Swedenborg for publication in 1768, on the last page of the treatise an "Conjugial Love" in these words: "Within the space of two years you will see in its fulness the Doctrine of the New Church predicted by the Lord in the apocalypse, chapters xxi and xxii." As its precursor he published in 1769 the "Brief Exposition," as may be seen from the preface to that work introduced in no. 140 (p. 1007). Then also he published his original plan of the present work, which was as follows:
"PART I: 1. The Lord God the Saviour, and the Divine Trinity in Him. 2. The Sacred Scripture and its two senses, the Natural and the Spiritual, and its Sanctity thence. 3. Love to God and love towards the neighbour, and their agreement with one another. 4. Faith and its conjunction with these two loves. 5. The doctrine of life, from the Commandments of the Decalogue. 6. Reformation and Regeneration. 7. Free-will, and man's coperation with the Lord thereby. 8. Baptism. 9. The Holy Supper. 10. Heaven and Hell. 11. Man's Conjunction therewith, and the State of Man's Life after Death according to that Conjunction. 12. Eternal Life.
"PART II: 1. The Consummation of the Age, or the End of the present Church. 2. The Coming of the Lord. 3. The Last Judgment. 4. The New Church which is the New Jerusalem.
"PART III: The disagreements between the dogmas of the present Church, and those of the New Church."
When this plan came to be executed, Part III, which had already been treated upon in the "Brief Exposition," was omitted; nos. 10-12 in Part I, and no. 3 in Part III were likewise omitted, and the remaining positions of the two parts were merged into the treatise known as the "True Christian Religion" consisting of fourteen chapters or sections.
As regards the work itself, it is a grand digest of all the doctrinal teachings hitherto published by the author, with additions on such points as had not heretofore been thoroughly treated. The works on which the author mainly drew for contributions are the "Four Leading Doctrines" (nos. 116-119), and the "New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine" (no. 103). From the "Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture" is derived almost the whole of the chapter on the Sacred Scripture, extending from nos. 189-276; from the "Doctrine of Life" are drawn nos. 282-2561 from the "Doctrine of the Lord," nos. 157, 262, 255; and from the "Heavenly Doctrine," nos. 397-406. "Divine Love and Wisdom" again has furnished nos. 12 and 30; and "Divine Providence," no. 203. From the "Continuation concerning the Last Judgment" (no. 120) are taken many particulars concerning the state of the various nations in the spiritual world (nos. 800-845), and the "Apocalypse Revealed" and "Conjugial Love" have furnished many of the Memorable Relations; in fact out of the seventy-nine Memorable Relations which are contained in the "True Christian
Religion," twenty-four had previously appeared in the Apocalypse Revealed," and twenty-three in the "Conjugial Love."
In respect to the time of composition of the present work we learn in no. 791 that it was finished on June 19, 1770; and as the author says in no. 157, "I have been in the spirit and at the same time in the body for twenty-six years," and in no. 851, "The interiors of my mind have been opened now for twenty-seven years it follows that the first part was written in 1769, and the second in 1770.
Towards the close of July, 1770, he departed from Stockholm to publish this work in Amsterdam, as appears from his seventeenth letter to Dr. Beyer, dated July 23, 1770, where he says, "As I shall depart in the course of a few days for Amsterdam, I desire herewith to take leave of you;" end in a letter enclosed in this he says, "In a few days I shall depart for Amsterdam in order to publish there the "Universal Theology of the New Church," the foundation of which is the worship of the Lord our Saviour, on which foundation if no temple be now built, lupanariai(brothels) will be erected" (Document 243, pp. 379 and 380).
On September 10, 1770, Cuno mentions having met him on the Exchange in Amsterdam with his friend Wretman (Document 56, p. 481). On January 26, 1771, Cuno wrote to a friend in Hamburg respecting Swedenborg, "He is now indefatigably at work; yea, I must say that he labours in a most astonishing and superhuman manner at his new work. Sixteen sheets with types twice as small as those used in his former works, are already printed. Only think! for every printed sheet he has to fill four sheets in manuscript. He now has two sheets printed every week. These he corrects himself; and consequently he has to write eight sheets every week. And what appears altogether incomprehensible, he has never a single line in reserve. His work is to consist, as he says himself, of eighty printed sheets; he has thus calculated already that it cannot be finished before Michaelmas. I will also tell you the title of the work he has in hand: it is as follows: 'True Christian Religion, containing the Universal Theology of the New Church,' &c., by Emanuel Swedenborg, Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. I could declare himself on the title-page the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he replied, "I have asked, and have received not only permission, but even an express command'" (Document 256, p. 482 et seq.)
As Swedenborg himself declares in no. 791 of the present work that he finished it on June 19, 1771; and as Cuno under the date of January 26, 1771, declares that he was indefatigably at work writing out this same work for the press--it appears that he prepared two copies of it, a rough copy is Sweden, and a clean copy for the printer in Amsterdam; just as he did in the case of the Arcana Coelestia and the "Apocalypse Explained." The materials of some of the Memorable Relations have been preserved and are discussed in no. 146 of the present Document.
On March 1, 1771, Cuno writes, "It can easily be seen, that the numerous calls which he receives, are a great drain on his time; and so much the less can I understand, how he, nevertheless, accomplishes his design, of having printed every week two closely set up sheets, and of composing ten sheets of MS. without having a single line in reserve. He says, that his angel dictates to him, and that he can write fast enough" (Document 256, p. 485).
From this it appears that the second copy which Swedenborg wrote was not an exact copy of the first, or else he could not have said to Cuno that "his angel dictated to him." On this subject, see the footnote to Vol. I, p. 62.
On April 30, 1771, he wrote to Dr. Beyer: "My Universa Theologia novi Cli et Nov Ecclesi will leave the press towards the close of the month of June...After the appearance of that book the Lord our Saviour will operate both mediately and immediately towards the establishment throughout the whole of Christendom of New Church based upon this Theology. The New Heaven, out of which the New Jerusalem will descend, will very soon be completed (Rev. xxi, 1-3)." See Document 245, p. 353.
Finally, under the date of July 2, 1771, he states that the "'True Christian Religion' had appeared a few days before" (Document 245, p. 354). On July 13, 1771, he seems still to have been in Amsterdam, for he wrote a letter bearing that date to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt expressing the hope that "the work which has just been printed under the title of 'The True Christian Religion' had reached him." He wrote to him also, "If you see fit, I should like you to instruct the learned among the clergy in your duchy to report concerning it; but I pray that such among the learned of your clergy be selected as love the truth and are delighted with it. If they are not in the way of truth, they will not see light in that work, but only shade."
Towards the close of the month of July, Swedenborg seems to have embarked for England, for in his affidavit before the Lord Mayor of London (Document 269, C) Shearsmith declared, that "in the month of July or August, 1771, Swedenborg came to lodge a second time at his house, and continued to lodge there until his death, which happened the 29th of March following."
In the Appendix to Vol. XLIV of the "Monthly Review, published in 1772, the present work is reviewed to some extent, on pp. 580-583. The reviewer says, "In our Review for June, 1770, we gave an account of a small quarto volume, containing some of Baron Swedenborg's lucubrations [see no. 140], which was probably intended as an introduction to further publications of the same kind.
In that work, we had some information concerning the family, rank, and office, as also of the peculiar turn and disposition of this extraordinary person. The present much larger performance, containing upwards of 500 pages, presents us with the same enthusiastic reveries, and unaccountable sallies of imagination, of which a specimen was given in the book above-mentioned. We observe in it the works of natural good sense and ingenuity, as well as of application and learning; but intermixed with so much mysticism, and further accompanied with such astonishing accounts of what the author has seen and heard when he was admitted to converse with angels and spirits in the invisible world, that though his relations are delivered in a plausible and coherent manner, it is impossible not to conclude that they are the productions of a disordered brain. We meet continually with these memorabilia, as they are called, which, it might be supposed, were only intended as a kind of allegories to diversify his work, and by this means to amuse and more strongly impress his readers: but he asserts with the greatest coolness and confidence that he has frequently been admitted, during the last twenty-seven years of his life, into the unseen worlds, and that the accounts he gives are not chimeras or inventions, but founded on what he has truly seen and heard; and this not in a kind of dream or vision, but when he was fully awake.
"The baron has conceived some notion of a great alteration which took place in the spiritual world in 1757, when, if me understand him right, the New Church, or Nova Hierosolyma, as he elsewhere calls it, began to be erected, and the last judgment (ultimum judicium) was held in the world of spirits, which, says he, I do attest, because, when I was broad awake, I beheld it with mine own eyes. He tells us that all that is said in the Scriptures concerning a new heaven and a new earth, and the second advent of Christ, is to be explained and understood, not literally, but in a spiritual manner.
"The doctrine and practice of this new church, of which our Author seems to consider himself as a special messenger, are laid before us in this volume. We observe, that he strenuously asserts the unity of the Deity, although he acknowledges a Trinity; but, at the same time, declares, that this Trinity was not till the appearance of Christ, when the Supreme God united himself to the man Christ Jesus. He contends that a trinity of persons was not the primitive faith of the church, and that, by the Nicene and Athanasian trinity, the whole Christian church has been perverted.
He is a warm advocate for charity and good works, he abhors the notion that faith alone is requisite to salvation, and speaks of the doctrine of predestination as detestable.
"His account of the decalogue, of which he gives what he calls the natural, spiritual, and celestial meaning, is very imperfect, as the second commandment is omitted, and the tenth divided into two, to form the ninth and tenth: This we have heard has been done in the Church of Rome, but we apprehend has not been the practice in Protestant churches.*
* It is an error to say that the second was omitted. It is included as part of the first, as has been the practice in all Protestant churches, except in England.
"Concerning the spiritual world which Baron Swedenborg has so frequently visited, he tells us that there are in it lands; plains and valleys, mountains and hills, as in our earth; that there are also fountains and rivers, gardens, groves and woods, houses, palaces and cities, writings, books, offices and employments, gold, silver, precious stones, &c., as there are also in ours but that all these things are created in an instant according to the ideas and affections which arise among the angels and spirits who inhabit those regions. In the different visits this writer has paid to them, he has conversed, we are told, with many persons of every rank and of all nations and countries. In the close of the present work, he gives a short account of the situation allotted to the inhabitants of different countries or religious professions, and to some of the more remarkable individuals among them." The Reviewer extracts here what the Author says respecting the English in the other world, and also respecting Calvin and Mahomet; and therewith concludes his review.
The first English edition of this work, translated by the Rev. John Clowes, appeared in 1781 in 2 Volumes, quarto. It contained an introductory letter by the Rev. Thomas Hartley, extracts of which are contained in Document 259, C, pp. 511 to 522. The second edition was published in 1786 by Mr. R. Hindmarsh, likewise in 4to.
The first German edition appeared in 1784 at Altenburg in 3 volumes; and a second and better edition in two large 8vo volumes at Basel in 1795. The latter contained also extracts from the Arcana Coelestia, the "Apocalypse Revealed," "Divine Providence," and "Conjugial Love."
The first Swedish edition was published at Copenhagen in 1795; it was translated by pastor Odhner of Westergrothland.
It has been several times translated and published in French, and the portion on the Decalogue has been translated and published in Russian.
1770. (146.) Adversaria in Veram Christianam Religionem (Materials for the True Christian Religion), in MS. pp. 23, folio.
A thorough account of this MS. is given in Document 302 (p. 758), where those portions of its contents are published which were not utilized by the author in the preparation of the "True Christian Religion."
l771. (117.) Historia Ecclesiastica Nov Ecclesi (An Ecclesiastical History of the New Church), in MS., p. 1, folio.
This interesting MS. constitutes Document 301. For further particulars, see Document 310, Codes 47, no. 2.
1771. (148.) Summarium Coronidis seu Appendicis ad Veram Christianam Religionem (A Summary of the Coronis or Appendix to the True Christian Religion), in MS. pp. 5, folio.
This summary consists of 55 paragraphs, where it is first of all stated that there have been altogether four Churches in this world; and that each of these passed through the successive stages of morning, noon, evening, night. Afterwards the cause of the decline in the Churches in general is stated, and the nature of the redemption described, by which the establishment of a New Church is rendered possible. The difference is afterwards shown between the Lord's first Coming and His Second Coming, and the falsities are specified into which the First Christian Church has successively fallen. It is then stated that the New Christian Church will not be established by miracles like the former Church; and the nature of this New Church is described. The last paragraph treats of an Invitation to the New Church, which is to be addressed to the whole Christian world. Afterwards follows a chapter on miracles, where it is shown why no miracles take place at the present day, and what there is in the New Church in the place of miracles.
This summary was afterwards wrought into two separate treatises, nos. 149 and 150. The first of these treats of the four churches which have existed in the world, and which have successively reached their climax and finally become consummated; and which are to be succeeded by a New Church which will be their crown. The second treats of the Consummation of the age foretold in Matt. xxiv; of the nature of the Lord's Second Coming, and of the New Church, which will then be established by Him; and finally it contains an Invitation to the New Church addressed to all in the Christian world.
An English translation of this Summary, prepared by Mr. J. A. Tulk,228 appeared in 1807 under the title, "A Brief Continuation of the Crown or Appendix to the True Christian Religion, or Universal Theology of the New Church," &c.
Respecting the original MS. and its publication, see Document 310, Codex 45, no. 6.
1771. (149.) Coronis, seu Appendix ad Veram Christianam Religionem: in qua agitur de quatuor Ecclesiis in hac Tellure a Creatione Mundi, deque illarum periodis et consummatione: ct deinceps de Nova Ecclesia quatuor illis successura, qu erit vere Christiana, et corona antecedentium; deque Adventu Domini ad illam, et de Divino Auspicio Ipsius in illa in aeternum; et porro de mysterio Redemptionis (The Coronis, or Appendix, to the True Christian Religion: containing an account of the Four Churches on this Earth since the Creation of the World, and of their periods and consummation. Likewise, an account of the New Church about to succeed those Four, which will be a truly Christian Church, and the Crown of the preceding Churches. To which are added, Observations concerning the Advent of the Lord to that Church, and His Divine Auspices therein to eternity. And lastly, concerning the mystery of Redemption), in MS.
Concerning this work we read in the "Samlingar fr Philantroper" for 1787, the organ of the Exegetic Philanthropic Society of Stockholm, as follows: "1780. A Swedish traveller found in London, at the house of Dr. Messiter (who died last year), a fragment of one of Swedenborg's MSS., which bore the following title, Coronis seu Appendix ad Veram Christianam Religionem," &c. This MS. our countryman published at his own expense, and he has since discovered a supplement to it, which, however, has not yet been printed." In Pernety's List of Swedenborg's MSS., which was published in 1789 (Document 305), we read as follows, "One MS. remained in London in the hands of Dr. Messiter, which was subsequently printed by the care of Mr. Aug[ustus] Nordenskjöld] under the following title, Coronis," &c. Again in a letter which A. Nordenskjöld wrote to Finland in 1782, and which is quoted in Document 309, B, we read, "Twenty copies of the book, which, as you are aware, I had printed in London, arrived in this country about six months ago."
From these data it is satisfactorily established, that the original of what is known as the "Coronis to the True Christian Religion" was published in London in 1780 at the expense of A. Nordenskjöld, and that he saw it through the press. It is also established that he discovered a supplement to it, and that, consequently, the note in Document 310 (Codex 48, no. 6), where this Supplement is described, was written by A. Nordenskjöld.
Again, we read in the "New Jerusalem Magazine" for 1790, in a footnote on p. 224, "Speaking of this Appendix (i. e. the 'Coronis,' &c.) We beg leave to observe, that what was printed in London after Swedenborg's decease, is but an incomplete part of the same; the truth is, (as we were informed by Doctor Messiter, in whose hands this valuable MS. was left), that nearly one half of the copy had been mislaid and finally lost at the Doctor 's house." From this then it follows that this MS. was complete at the time of the Author's death, but that a portion of it was lost At Dr. Messiter's house, which is very much to be regretted.
B. Chastanier222 says on this subject in his "Tableau Analytique et Raisonn," &c., p. 13: "We have to observe here, that the appendix, from which we have given here an extract, was not published by the Author himself, but by one of the friends of his Doctrine, who having heard that the original had been left in London in the hands of Dr. Messiter,2 made a journey to London for the express purpose of having it printed by some accident, which the Doctor could not explain to us, a portion of the MS. has been mislaid, and the printed work is incomplete."
The work so far as it is preserved treats, 1. Of the four churches in general which have existed in this world, and of the stages from morning to night through which they successively passed, nos. 1-22; 2. Of the Adamic or Most ancient Church, nos. 23-38; 3. Of the Noatic or Ancient Church, nos. 39-45; 4. Of the Israelitish and Jewish Church, nos. 46-60. The portions concerning the Christian and the New Christian Churches are missing
Two English translations .f this work were issued almost simultaneously; of which the one was published in London in 1810 under the auspices of the Rev. M. Sibly;240 and the second, which is preferable, was published by the Rev. R. Hindmarsh225 in Manchester in 1810.
A German translation appeared as early as 1795, in Ble, as a part of the German edition of the "True Christian Religion." Concerning the relation which the present work holds to the so-called "Supplement," which was discovered by A. Nordenskjöld, see the "Summary of the Coronis," no. 148.
1771. (150.) De Consummatione Sculi, de Adventu secundo Domini, et de Nova Ecclesia; quibus adjecta est Invitatio ad totum Christianum orbem ad illam Ecclesiam (The Consummation of the Age, the Lord's Second Coming, and the New Church: to which is added an Invitation to that Church made to the whole Christian world), in MS., pp. 15, folio.
There is little doubt that this is the last work which was projected by Swedenborg, and that it was intended by him to follow what is known as the "Coronis to the True Christian Religion" (no. 149). Death seems to have overtaken him, after he had just finished the plan of the projected work. This plan constitutes Document 303, p. 773, to which we refer the reader for further particulars.
Materials for this work were collected by the Author in Codices 50 and 48; in Codex 50 for the first and fourth Sections, i. e. the "Consummation of the Age," and the "Invitation to the New Church;" and in Codex 48, i. e. in the "Summary of the Coronis" (no. 148) for the two other Sections, chiefly in '' 31-39, and 52-55. The original manuscript of these materials has been lost, as Codex 50 of the Swedenborg MSS. is missing, and the portion of Codex 48 containing the "Summary of the Coronis" has been torn out of the volume. Fortunately, however, copies of both have been preserved. That of the "Summary of the Coronis" has been described in no. 148 of the present Document, and also in Document 310, Codex 48, no. 6. Two copies exist of the "Invitation to the New Church," of which one was written by Johansen, and the other probably by A. Nordenskjöld. Both these copies are now in the possession of the Swedenborg Society. Nordenskjöld's copy contains also the materials for the Section on the "Consummation of the Age." The whole of what Nordenskjöld copied from Codex 50 was published by Dr. Im. Tafel in the Diarium Spirituale, Part VII, Appendix 1, pp. 137-160.
For further particulars, see Document 310, Codex 50; and also Codex 48, no. 6.
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SECTION XIII.
APPENDIX.
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DOCUMENT 314.
SWEDENBORG AND TINGER.182
While preparing a notice of tinger's life and character for the Notes, the editor came across a large biography of this remarkable man, written by Ehmann, and published in Stuttgart in 1859. From this work, which contains also a rich collection of letters, the biographical notice which appears in Note 152 is extracted. But as tinger was a correspondent of Swedenborg himself; and the first martyr, though an unwilling one, in the cause of the New Church, some of the new material, among which is a letter which he addressed to Swedenborg hitherto unpublished, seemed to deserve a place rather among the Documents, than among the notes.
tinger's acquaintance with the writings of Swedenborg dates from the year 1762, when the first volume of the Arcana Coelestia came into his hands. He was then engaged upon a work, which he subsequently published under the title "Earthly and Heavenly Philosophy of Swedenborg and others." Of this he himself gives us the following account in his autobiography:
"I wrote the second part of the 'Earthly and Heavenly Philosophy' before the gates of eternity, being convinced of my approaching death. This was to be my last testament. When I commenced writing it I became tranquil.... On recovering from my illness Swedenborg's work [Arcana Coelestia, Vol. I] came into my hands. This I translated, and made up from it Part I of my 'Earthly and Heavenly Philosophy,' which was published in Tübingen after I had received the censorial permission to do so.
Meanwhile the prelacy of Murrhard became vacant. Although ten years ago I had been proposed for the prelacy, I knew that I had enemies, wherefore I addressed a frank letter to His Serene Highness, upon which be sent me two letters in four days, appointing me prelate. The book appeared afterwards, and as at it the Consistory became highly incensed, I was obliged to defend myself. I took my seat among the prelates in the Diet (Landschaft), and remained in Stuttgart for about a year. At last I returned to Murrhard, where I cultivated scriptural philosophy in my leisure, but I was compelled by the Consistory to appeal to the Privy Council. The Consistory interdicted me from publishing anything either within or without the country. Whereupon my son, a physician, published under his name the work entitled Metaphysica et Chemia. Meanwhile I had written to Baron Swedenborg in Stockholm, who replied to my letters; the whole correspondence may be seen in Clemm's German Theology."
In the work above-mentioned, which was published in 1765, tinger did not translate the whole of the Arcana Coelestia, Vol. I; but only the memorable relations which are premised and appended to each chapter in that volume. In the preface he uses the following words: "I herewith present to the examination of the reader something rare, which God has given us to know in the present times. It is profitable to compare unusual things with those to which we are accustomed; but in doing so it is necessary sometimes to keep back our judgment, until we are able to take in the whole matter. The infidelity which is rife now in the world, has induced God to make use of a celebrated philosopher in order to communicate to us heavenly information. Mathematics have checked the imagination of this philosopher; wherefore it will not do to say, that he reports were imaginations. Experimental facts (standhafte Erfahrungen) are not imaginations. These experiences are due to the influx of heavenly intelligences by the command of the Lord. Should any one say, 'We have Moses and the Prophets,' he may read what follows or not, just as he pleases. Still, a person anxious to improve himself ought not to forego any opportunity by which he may become acquainted with new light offered to him by truth.
Swedenborg, a distinguished Assessor of the College of Mines in Sweden, wrote a large work in folio, which is most costly [Opera philosophica et mineralia, 1734]. This I call Earthly Philosophy in opposition to the following, which is of a heavenly origin, and which he has published in thirteen works that are still more valuable. Should you find therein propositions which appear objectionable, remember the twelve Ephesians in the Acts (xix, 21), who 'had not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost,' and, nevertheless, were thought worthy at once to receive the Holy Spirit; notwithstanding they were ignorant of one of the chief grounds of faith, and opposed to the Scripture. Does not Swedenborg place the Scripture higher than any one else? and does he not wish to have his experiences judged thereby? Is not all he says well connected? and does he not appeal to many witnesses?" &c.
Soon after this book appeared, it was condemned in unmeasured terms by Ernesti in his "Neuc Theologische Bibliothek;" while it was favourably reviewed in the "Erlanger Gelehrte Anmerkungen" (Learned notices of the University of Erlangen), February 8, 1766. By these reviews attention was directed to the work, and under a decree dated March 4, 1766, Consistory, ordered the whole edition of the work to be confiscated, and Prelate tinger was at the same time called upon to defend himself. This he did in the following letter addressed to the Duke of Würtemberg himself:
A.
TINGER TO DUKE CHARLES OF Würtemberg.
"I am called upon to defend myself on three points; 1. On the motives by which I was influenced, 2. Respecting the publication of the work, and the censorial permission for printing it, and 3. Respecting the sale of the printed work.
In connection with the first point I have to state that standing before the gates of eternity, being in even unto death, was impelled to write the book by an inward call to satisfy a wish of Spener.
This call it was impossible for me to resist. In order to combat the fever I seized the pen at ten, at twelve, and at one o'clock, in order to write down my grounds, which I had recently elaborated, for proving the orthodoxy of Jacob Bohme.40 Without troubling myself about my family, whom I had commended to God, I was compelled to write this then, being unable to do anything more. The second part of the work was projected first, as my last legacy, in the sight of God; after which I was prepared to die. Spener's opinion I appended to the work. Some time afterwards, when Chancellor Reuss had read me a letter from Copenhagen containing some information about Swedenborg, through Professor Kies I became acquainted with his Arcana Coelestia. Thirty years previously I heel studied Swedenborg's Principia Rerum Naturalium in folio, which I preferred much to Wolf's18 philosophy on account of its leading to the Sacred Scripture. It is wonderful how a philosopher, who was accustomed to think according to the rules of mechanics, should have become a prophet! As the accounts which I derived from him, agreed with the truths which had become confirmed in me during my illness, I did not take counsel with flesh and blood, but translated the work in the sight of God, thinking that the foolishness of God is wiser than the mechanical intelligence of man. Nevertheless, I inquired of Prof. Schott in respect to the translation. He assured me that as the book had been published some time, 1 need not trouble myself about the translation. This is my second motive. The third is, that formerly, during my stay in Hirsau, I had been very intimate with Mr. Schill, the master of the school in Calw, who conferred with the departed.... What appears most strange in Swedenborg, Schill himself related to me in holy fear, lamenting that he must keep silence about these things, lest he should give offence. A fourth motive was this, that Baron von Veltheim sent for me in Herrenberg, and called upon me to translate Swedenborg, because his conversation with the spirit of Prince William246 had been attested to him from the mouth of the Duchess of Brunsprick, who had heard it from the Queen of Sweden, her sister, and who on that account thinks highly of Swedenborg.
Such urgent motives sent by the Divine Providence prevailed upon my intrepid mind; for from my sixth year already I entertained this sentiment: 'Suppose the whole world should be destroyed, its ruins would not terrify me' (Horace, Ode 3, 3). Besides, Baron von Bernerdin, and Baron von Leiningen advanced me the cost of printing, which they promised to take out in boobs. The most urgent of all motives, however, is this, that Fischer, the court-chaplain, complained to me that the philosophy of Plouquet [which was then taught at Tübingen,] did not lead to the Sacred Scripture, stating that the philosophy of Weiss was better. I remembered the conversations I had formerly had with Plouquet on the subject of Jacob Böhme; and I saw clearly that the self-revelation of God taught by the former had been taken from Böhme, and embellished with Leibnitz's philosophy. I cared for the truth only. Mr. von Creuz, the privy-councillor, attacked the philosdphicalthesis that there is no third between the simple and the compound. This gentleman had been my pupil in Hesse-Homburg, in 1734; and I saw that he had surpassed his master, and that the most cogent ground for the establishment of the Sacred Scripture, was a refutation of this proposition; for the certain and truthful words of God have at all times been explained in an offensive manner.
"Your Serene Highness will please to take into consideration here, that this work has been written in the sight of God with much thought, and that its object is to defend literally even the foolishness of God. 'Be not afraid of those who kill the body.' This is my written defence in respect to the motives.
The second point respecting the publication and the censorial permission is as follows. I was well aware that this is an extraordinary book, but, likewise, that it contained just as little against the symbolical writings as the 'Chiliasm' of the great Bengel;183 even though a hundred Ernestis38 should gnash their teeth over it, I considered myself bound in conscience to see it through the press, yet not to submit it to the censorship of the theologians, but to Prof. Kies, the Dean of the Philosophical Faculty. God Himself removed the obstacle, and induced him to write imprimatur on the book, for the printer. Baron von Bernerdin paid for the printing, and took out the amount in books.
Chancellor Reuss would not have anything to do with the book, saying that he could not meet a blessed death, if he began thinking on the statements of the Bible. It was, therefore, fruitless to submit anything to the censorship of the theologians, since they at once take offence. Nevertheless, I was bound in conscience to print the work.
In respect to the third point I have to observe, that inasmuch as the Ducal consistory has not only prohibited the sale of the book, under a heavy fine, but also confiscated it, nothing else remains to me, than to obey and to keep silence before God. Who is right, O Lord, Thou knowest! But Your Serene Highness condemns no one, and you also punish no one, unless he has first been tried and convicted. I entreat you therefore in all humility, as I do not share Swedenborg's private opinions, and as his views have been otherwise ventilated, that, before you pronounce judgment upon me, you will first listen to a discussion of the propositions which are appended, or that you will allow me to apply for the degree of a doctor of philosophy in Tübingen or in any other university, when I shall he prepared to defend pro cathedra the appended theses. Meanwhile I remain in profoundest submission, and in perfect and joyful tranquillity in respect to the truth,
"Your," &c.
This letter seems to have had the effect of leaving matters in statu quo, and so the work in question remained in the hands of the authorities; but personally tinger was not molested. Still he did not remain calm under this infliction; but in the following year applied to the government for the release of his books. The government now called upon the Consistory to state formally their objections to the work, whence resulted a ducal decree ordering the final confiscation of the books, and the application of a formal reprimand to Prelate tinger. This he resented by a counter declaration, dated October 10, 1767, in which he exposed in a scathing manner the whole procedure of the Consistory.
"The Consistory," says tinger in his autobiography, "was highly incensed against me, and through the assistance of Prelate Faber, who had long agitated against me, but at first had been one of my best friends--prevailed upon the Privy Council, by a special resolution to send me an interdict, that if Swedenborg should come to me, I was not to receive him.
This order troubled me, wherefore I appealed to His Serene Highness, who told me that if I had a thousand persecutors, they should not hurt me."
From this period dates the following letter which tinger addressed to Swedenborg, and which is inserted by Ehmann, in his "Life of tinger."
B.
TINGER TO SWEDENBORG.
"The affection I entertain for you threatens to become lukewarm amid the many reproaches showered upon me; it must be refreshed. You can scarcely believe how much I have still to suffer on your account. The Consistory treats me in a most violent manner. But as I am placed more immediately under the Privy Council, and not under the Consistory, I addressed to the Privy Council a complaint on account of the illegal confiscation of the book translated by myself. This consists of the following ten questions and answers:
"(1) Why I wrote the 'Earthly and Heavenly Philosophy?' (2) Why I did not submit it to the censorship of the Consistory, but to that of the Philosophical Faculty in Tübingen? (3) Whether it is opposed to the symbolical writings to assume an intermediate condition between death and the final judgment? (4) Whether Swedenborg is a seer of the kind described in Isa. xxix, 10; 1 Kings xxii, 22? (5) Why Swedenborg's writings are so high in my estimation? (6) Why the world despises them? (7) Whether the punishments suffered by adulterers, by such as are arrogant, &c., are not arrant nonsense, and farces which violate our sense of truth? (8) Whether it is allowable to write so much in detail of matters on which the Sacred Scripture is either entirely silent, or which it scarcely treats with a single word, as in Isa. xiv, 15? (9) Whether Swedenborg's doctrine of an intermediate state after death is not favourable to the popish dogma respecting purgatory? (10) Whether the author is able to refute all the objections which may be formulated from the symbolic writings?
"These questions and answers I shall submit to the Privy Council, and if you call in any way assist me in it, I beg you to be kind enough to do so.
"I am firmly resolved to write a defence of your writings. The only objection which I entertain to them, is that in violation of your own principles regarding the literal sense, you deny that Paul's Epistles have an internal sense; and that you explain the city of God as meaning the Church, abandoning thereby the literal sense, and putting yourself into contradiction with the word of Christ, 'Behold, I make all things new."
"I shall write in the manner of Job; for this is our pattern in the discussion of difficult questions. First, I shall bring forward, in favour and in opposition, the propositions and counter propositions of Eliphas, answering the same; afterwards those of Bildad, with their answers; then those of Zophar with their answers; and, finally, I shall introduce an impartial Elihu, who is to decide the whole.
"Some of your own observations would be most useful for this work. Please, therefore, to furnish me with some facts not yet published, by which I may defend your books. Write to me especially, how your experience commenced, and how from having been a philosopher, you have become a seer and prophet. Let me know whether heaven has not manifested something very striking in confirmation of what lies hitherto remained doubtful to me; whether you do not feel inclined to converse with our former countryman Bengel,l83 late councillor of the consistory, and one of the foremost expounders of the literal sense. One thing I must beg of you that you will see my friend Fricker,306 late assistant minister of the church in Dettingen, who has also embraced your principles; that you will converse with him, and report to me the substance of your conversation. This shall be to me in the place of a sign which you have promised; perhaps, such a sign will yet be granted.
"The Duchess of Brunswick, sister of your Queen, has written a detailed letter to the Margrave of Anspach, in which she affirms the testimony which the Queen of Sweden has given in respect to the reality of your occurrences.
"Your experiences command more belief than your explanations of Scripture. Any one, if he chooses, may accept such explanations; but no rational man can deny facts which are firmly supported by testimony. I wish very much that you yourself would declare that your explanations of the Scripture are not to command faith to the same extent as your visions and revelations from heaven I am thinking of projecting a book in which I shall prove that God intends through you to re-establish the ideas of the Fathers of the Church, e. g. of Tertullian, On the subject of the soul, and its state after death, removing from these ideas the popish doctrine of purgatory. Let me know how this strikes you.
"It is possible that during the coming spring some of my friends will call upon you. Please favour them with your conversation."
"I am on the point of departing from Stuttgart for my abbey at Murrhard. Should you wish to write to me, you will please send your letter by the same opportunity by which I forward mine, viz. through Councillor----, whose secretary takes charge of my letter to you. Farewell; and continue to pray for one who honours your name, &c. &c.
"Stuttgart, December 16, 1767.
"P. S. I wrote the above with inflamed eyes, wherefore you will kindly excuse the hasty writing."
Whether Swedenborg replied to this letter is not known. In his autobiography tinger continues as follows: "I considered it my duty to submit a declaration to the Privy Council wherein I refuted the incriminations of the Consistory. This document has been inserted in the book entitled Beurtheilungen, &c.,* p. 86." The ten points which tinger specified in his letter to Swedenborg, he there reduced to six.
The document is as follows:
* Beurtheilungen der wichtigen Lehre vom Zustand nach dem Tod und der damit verbundenen Lehren des berhmten Emanuel Swedenborg's theils aus Urkunden von Stockholm, theils aus sehr wichtigen Anmerkungen verschiedener Gelehrten (Examination of the important doctrine respecting the state after death, and the doctrines of the celebrated Emanuel Swedenborg which are connected therewith, based partly on documents from Stockholm, partly on very important opinions given by various scholars, 1771. This work was also published under the following title, Schwedische Urkunden von dem Assessor Swedenborg, welche auf dem Schwedischen Reichstag, den 13ten Juni, 1771, werden zur Entscheidung kommen (Swedish Documents about Assessor Swedenborg, which will be decided by the Swedish Diet, June 13, 1771), 1771.
C.
TINGER'S DECLARATION TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL OF Würtemberg.
"I. The first question is as follows, Whether it is worth while to expend so much thought on Swedenborg and his mission? Answer. If any one pay attention to the signs of the times, he will notice that in the year 1622 John Engelbrecht rose as a prophet in Brunswick. He died, and was made alive again; this the Rev. Mr. Jordan saw with his own eyes; the angel Gabriel also and other angels conversed with him personally, as they did with Mary and Zacharias (see Note 257). No one thought it worth his while at the time to reflect on this matter. Almost at the same time in the year 1623, God awakened Princess Antonia of Würtemberg in a similar manner. She was the sister of Luke Eberhard III, and in commemoration of this she placed a tablet in the church at Teinach. The book in which she explains this tablet was to have been printed under the censorship of the Consistory, but nobody thought it worth his while to meditate on such things, although it explains most beautifully the relation of the fundamental wisdom of Scripture to theology.
"Now Swedenborg arises, and shows us how to improve the vaunted arts of an earthly philosophy by a heavenly one, but as this requires too much thought and reflection, he is passed by unnoticed. He is rejected by the censorship of the learned; yet God has His own ways, by which He opposes human authority.
"II. Whether it is not opposed to our rule of faith to believe in an intermediate state between death and the Last Judgment?
Answer. Not at all. People ought to be better instructed on this subject; but because the teachers will not do it, therefore so many phenomena happen, which bear witness of such an intermediate state. Pontopidan wrote a book on the intermediate state. Dr. Vinzenzi also; and likewise Engelhard, a general superintendent of the Church in Würtemberg, and his book passed the censorship of the Consistory.
"III. Whether Swedenborg is a seer like those that existed formerly? Answer. There is no end as yet of Joel's prophecy [ii, 28, 29]. Men hate fictitious miracles, and therefore they reject in Swedenborg's case the most sacred effects of the Spirit. The old Fathers of the first three hundred years have frequently taught these things. From Swedenborg proves that he is a seer, and this cannot be denied in Stockholm. It would be desirable, however, to distinguish his visa and audita (things heard and seen) into such as are certified by witnesses, and those winch are not. It is quite possible for arbitrary things to mixed up with them; wherefore it is necessary to examine them. This Prelate tinger has done, and therefore he is persecuted. It is against Scripture, (1 Thess. v, 20, 21) to prove a thing in order to hold fast what is good, and then to make the whole thing contemptible because others think differently.
"IV. Whether the punishments of the damned, as described by Swedenborg, are not ridiculous and nonsensical? Answer. They appear so at first sight, and also have been judged so by some ecclesiastics in Sweden. Nevertheless this is a most serious matter. Sin considered in itself is also nonsensical; as will be seen some time intuitively. Therefore the Sacred Scripture says in Ezek. xxxii, 27, that the iniquities of the wicked shall be upon their bones; and in the Catechism it is taught that 'the bodies of the damned shall be terrible.' From the treatise on Dogmatics, which Prelate tinger has deduced from the idea of life (ex idea vit*), it appears (p. 361, paragraph 21) that the damned shall be encompassed with the unperishable fantasies of their former life. This has passed the censorship of the Consistory.
But if it is maintained that his 'Heavenly and Earthly Philosophy,' which he has written in order that it may be examined, contains things opposed to our religion, this is not in accordance with the former act of censorship.
* Sylloge Theologi, &c., Heilbronn, 1753.
"Neither in this, nor in any other of his books are there any Sabellian or Socinian errors which are opposed to religion; not even an error like that of Dr. Hedinger who denied the descent to hell, or like those which Marcus Osiander has imputed to Arnd.
"V. Whether the punishments of the damned do not include the idea of a purgatory? Answer. Many mix up the idea of a purgatory with that of an intermediate state. The punishments of the avaricious, the arrogant, the voluptuous, which are the natural consequences of the productive force of ideas, are not purgatory. Some expressions in respect to the state after death seem ridiculous, as where it is stated that some in the large space after death have a place assigned to them in the posteriors, others in the big toe, and still others in the abdomen. Yet this is a natural consequence resulting from the human form. The large space after death is by necessity either infinite, or else finited in a form at the good pleasure of the Lord. From John v, 27, it may be inferred that that form is the human. Around figure, or a polygon, consisting of an infinite number of sides would not be so natural, as they would lack the relation of right and left. Swedenborg brings to light again, by the Divine will, those primitive ideas respecting the state after death which me find in Irenus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Chrysostom; and indeed in a pretty similar manner; and if there was nothing else to praise in Swedenborg's writings than this, it may be presumed that these writings will do more good than harm......
"VI. Whether it is allowable to treat such matters at large as in the Sacred Scripture are treated only in a short compass? Answer. The pearls in the Scripture must be distinguished from the every-day nutriment respecting the blood of Christ, His passion, His death and resurrection. The important principle of space and time belongs to the pearls; and in proportion to the increase of knowledge in every age, this subject must be more extensively treated.
There are temptations at the present time, which did not exist in former times; therefore Professor Kant assailed Wolf's easy nominal principles in respect to time and space, with entirely new weapons. If any one chooses to have only bread, and not pearls, he may suit himself."
As to the spirit in which the Privy Council received this declaration of tinger, he says in his autobiography, "The Privy Council knew very well, that the Consistory had acted wrongly, and that it had violated the enactments of the Diet in condemning a Prelate without an open trial (for this the Consistory desired to avoid on account of my well-known boldness of speech), by confiscating his book and declaring him to be heterodox; get I did not think it advisable to oppose myself too much to the Consistory. I had intended, indeed, to defend my propositions in a public disputation at Tübingen, but I did not like the clat connected therewith, wherefore I contented myself with writing another book which was to be printed in Frankfort." tinger gives here the titles of two new books, which, however, he did not publish.
The next publication, in which tinger discussed his relation to Swedenborg, is entitled as follows: "Letter concerning a supposed settlement of the controversy between the Consistory of Gottenburg and the two defenders of the Swedenborgian doctrines, Beyer and Ros? (Schreiben von einer angeblichen Vermittlung des Streites zwischen dem Gottenburger Consistorium und zwischen den beiden Verfechtern der Swedenborgischen Lehren). In this work tinger clearly defined his position in respect to Swedenborg, viz. that he accepts the things heard and seen by him in the spiritual world, but does not accept his teaching of the internal sense, nor the science of correspondences taught in his writings; thinking that the internal sense annihilates the literal sense; when yet Swedenborg shows clearly that the letter of the Word is the fulfilment of its spiritual sense. On account of this difficulty in the internal and external senses of the Word, which constitutes a portion of Document 238, p. 269.
On this subject tinger writes in the published letter above-mentioned as follows:
"Dear friend,
"You address me on account of Swedenborg and his doctrine, and mention that this curious and important phenomenon is now being taken in hand in Sweden, although the learned opposed to its public discussion. You write also, that inasmuch as in the Latin letter which I had appended to the translation of Swedenborg's work on the Planets made by a youth of fifteen years, he accepts the literal sense as a basis, his internal sense in these and other passages may be readily accepted, provided he acknowledges as well that what is declared in Scripture takes place also according to the letter. Yet this Swedenborg is not willing to admit in most passages, and especially not in those recorded in the Revelation, e. g. in what is said there in respect to the White Horse, which appears to the learned as too material. The reason is that their metaphysics are of too abstract a nature, and that they polish the things of nature (die Schnecken) so thoroughly, that at last nothing remains. Suppose we should treat the words of a reigning prince in this manner, he would lay our heads before our feet; on this subject I have spoken expressly with our sovereign, who as being the rector magnificentissimus of the University, may be justly credited with the soundest views in respect to the Sacred Scripture. You know, my dear friend, how variously my necessary examinations of the Swedenborgian doctrines have been judged, after I had published a book on the subject about five years ago. As an impartial, learned philosopher you are aware of the dissent which I expressed in Dr. Klemm's Theology; yet I was not heard to the end, and the whole matter was quashed. In Sweden, however, this affair turns out to be very interesting. The confiscated books ought therefore not to be hidden away, but circulated among people so that they might examine them; especially as the confiscation of the work has caused it to be twice reprinted. The best course in the Gottenburg controversy would be to propose a compromise of the whole matter, &c. The compromise which tinger proposes is, to accept Swedenborg's spiritual experiences, but to reject his explanations of Scripture.
The next work he published is that entitled Beurtheilungen, &c.; the full title of which is given on p. 1032.
This is a strange volume. It begins with the leading documents of the Gottenburg controversy, both pro and con. It gives the charges of Dean Ekebom, on the one hand, and Swedenborg and Dr. Beyer's replies, on the other; likewise Swedenborg's letters to the King and to the Swedish Universities. Then comes an extensive statement of the grounds which tinger occupies in respect to Swedenborg; showing, that on account of his spiritual experiences he considers him as the greatest of prophets, wherefore he exalts him then and there to the very skies; but because Swedenborg also teaches that there is a spiritual sense in the letter of the Sacred Scripture, he attacks and opposes him to the same extent. He thus alternately blows hot and cold on the subject of his book. Afterwards he communicates some of Cuno's testimony, and also the letter which he addressed to Swedenborg (Document 256, p. 465). Then follow portions of the autobiography which Swedenborg addressed to Mr. Hartley (Document 2); and, finally, the author communicates an interesting letter addressed to himself by Dr. G. Beyer of Gottenburg, in which that gentleman endeavours to convince him of his errors in respect to Swedenborg. The book closes with tinger's reply to Dr. Beyer.
Dr. Beyer's letter to tinger was inserted by Dr. Im. Tafel in his "Documents concerning Swedenborg" (pp. 372-390), and an English translation has likewise appeared in the English and American editions of this work. This translation, which appeared first in the Intellectual Repository for 1813, pp. 225-236, and which has been carefully collated with the original, is as follows:
D.
DR. G. BEYER22 TO PRELATE TINGER.
"I could wish that you and Swedenborg, as being two eminently learned and honest men, entertained the same opinions; but notwithstanding the difference which exists between you on theological points, your indefatigable and unalterable love for truth, which shines so conspicuously, gives me an assurance that it will very shortly be removed; yea, that as you will even accede to Swedenborg's sentiments with a full assent, should you be pleased, and would your duties permit you, to take a deeper and more general view of all his writings.
"For myself, whilst I am reading, neither his name, nor the dignity of his person, passes before my eyes, which he indeed himself wishes to extinguish, in order that the reader may only hold in honour the holiness of the subjects on which he treats: and I am no longer led to inquire, by what deep attainments in sciences and philosophy he had arrived at celebrity before the year 1745, but my whole endeavor is, to acquire a rational judgment of his theosophical doctrines, according to true Biblical theosophy. Besides, it is impossible to see Divine things, such as all those which relate to the kingdom of the Lord, heaven, and the church, in any other than a Divine, that is, a heavenly light. Such things can receive no light from the light of nature, or the sun of the natural world, or, as we may say, from the pomp of all natural sciences, which fall under the name of philosophy, and the merely human understanding, be they as pure as possible. Undoubtedly, what can flow into what is inferior, but not vice versa; and the truths derived from heaven can illustrate and correct the truths derived from the world, but not these the former. We certainly stand in need of illumination from the Lord and Saviour through the heavens, to be enabled to understand what is spiritual and celestial, which may then be confirmed with man, through rational and natural sciences, prodded we do not believe that power and strength are derived from the latter. I also remember that Swedenborg nowhere depends, in his theological writings, upon the scientific and philosophical principles he had learned before, or argues from them; still less does he draw forth Iris arguments from mechanical philosophy; from the motion, rest, figure, position, or properties of matter; from natural phenomena; nor does he defend the nature and property of spiritual things by them, forasmuch as they are as distinct as the poles from natural things, although they coincide in appearance; at the same time that he has himself a knowledge of this branch of philosophy, and strongly recommends the pursuit of it to others.
He says that he is indebted for all his theosophical doctrines, and all the clear explanations of the holy prophecies, to the Word of God alone, and to illustration from the Lord. But in proportion as we have a more imperfect view of these things,--the more we are careless in suffering the true knowledge of God to obtain a right form ill our hearts,--and the less we meditate upon the infinite wisdom and majestic holiness of the Word, unendowed with a right conception of it, the further we are removed from the science of all sciences, which is called the science of correspondences.
"All illustration comes from the Lord our God; the Word of enlightening wisdom is the truest mirror: the science of correspondences supports the spiritual sight, a sight which cannot be dispensed with. What our views therefore ought to be, respecting these three fundamental points, may be clearly learned from The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, nos. 280-310 and 249-266; only let us not spare the trouble to examine more deeply the other important passages from the Arcana Coelestia which are referred to there, together with the special treatises on the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord, and concerning the Sacred Scriptures. Respecting the science of correspondences, it is not probable that any person can conceive any idea of them, who thinks it a labour to acquire an intimate acquaintance with the treatise on Heaven and Hell, nos. 87-115; as well as the passages in the Arcana Coelestia, no. 2987 et seq., and especially the general idea of them in no. 7850. Being therefore persuaded, from the high esteem in which you hold everything that is Divine, that you will spare no pains, be they ever so great, to maintain the truth as it is presented to us in unshaken dignity, I proceed, and with your approbation, more confidently, to examine, with becoming modesty, the objections you have advanced against his writings.
"1. You say that Assessor Swedenborg had not been called to give an interpretation of the Scripture, but to make known in these our days, the things he has seen spiritual world.
"2. You charge him with not following sufficiently the literal meaning.
"3. You think that he invests most passages in the Sacred Scriptures with a veil of doubt.
"4. That he rests more upon the science of correspondences than upon the dearest expressions of the Sacred Word.
"5. That he invents things repugnant to the declaration of Scripture, respecting the White Horse and the White Horses, the Resurrection from the Dead, the Last Judgment, the New Heaven and the New Earth, and the Holy City, the New Jerusalem.
"6. That he offends mightily against the analogy of faith, and teaches the doctrine of the Trinity, not as the apostles have done, but according to the Schwenkfeldian method.
"7. That he diminishes the authority of Paul, by not ascribing to his writings the title of the Word of God.
"8. That he is not introduced to celebrity by signs and wonders, at least he does not bring them forth as open credentials, and that the Divine seal is wanting.
"9. That the prophecy of the New Jerusalem, which within two years was to have been fulfilled, is refuted by its non-accomplishment.
"10. That the interpretation of the apocalypse seems to have been introduced in favour of the newly invented church.
"The above are nearly all the general points of objection, which I find advanced against Swedenborg in your writings. After I have laid open to you in truth and simplicity what I have to oppose to each of these objections, you will judge yourself, whether they justly or unjustly deprive him of his credit.
"[I.] Having propounded to Swedenborg several questions, I received from him, in the year 1767, amongst others this answer: 'I was forbidden,' he says, 'to read writers on dogmatic and systematic theology, before heaven was opened to me, because unfounded opinions and inventions might thereby have easily insinuated themselves, which afterwards could only have been removed with difficulty; wherefore, when heaven was opened to me, I had first to learn the Hebrew language, as well as the correspondences according to which the whole Bible is composed, which led me to read the Word of God over many times; and as God's Word is the source whence all theology must be derived, I was enabled thereby to receive instruction from the Lord, who is the Word."
He has likewise, in a letter from Stockholm, dated November 14, 1769, given me a description of the state of his earliest youth. 'From my fourth year,' says he, 'to my tenth, I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual diseases of men; and several times I revealed things at which my father and mother wondered, saying that angels must be speaking through me. From my sixth to my twelfth year I used to delight in conversing with clergymen about faith, saying that the life of faith is love, and that the love which imparts life is love to the neighbour; also that God gives faith to every one, but that those only receive it who practise that love. I knew of no other faith at that time, than that God is the Creator and Preserver of nature, that He imparts understanding and a good disposition to men, and several other things that follow thence. I knew nothing at that time of that learned faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to whomsoever, and at such times, as He chooses, even to those who have not repented and have not reformed their lives. And had I heard of such a faith, it would have been then, as now, above my comprehension.' Hence it may be accounted for, in my opinion, how an Assessor of the Metallic College could have become a theologian, if his indisputable erudition be also taken into consideration; and a theologian too, who is free from prejudice, and far more enlightened than the obscure Böhme.40
"If the theology, which is now-a-days in vogue, should be stripped of all inventions and conclusions from reasoning, what, pray, would there be left remaining?
"Let the history of dogmas be consulted, and an inquiry be instituted, at what periods of the world, under what opportunities, and under what founders, theology has grown to its height; and it will be immediately seen, that most of the prevailing doctrines are modern, and that they have been extended and spread abroad through human authority, grounded upon perplexed reasonings.
It is, therefore, better to forget them, or to lose sight of them, than to acquire them; yea, while we hold any of them in esteem, the true doctrine is altogether denied admittance; wherefore Swedenborg, agreeably to the private communication, which he imparted to me, and which I have above related, did himself derive from the Word alone, under the instruction of the Lord, those doctrines which are taught in heaven; and if he understands them, and has the felicity to read also in heaven that Word, which is there preserved, and which corresponds with our Word as to every particular (for correspondences are natural truths and mirrors of celestial things, A. C. 9300), in the sense which is adapted to the celestial spirits (Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, nos. 70-75, likewise Last Judgment, no. 57), can there be any apprehension as to his being a true interpreter of the Scriptures? When you say you consider him as one who is constantly advancing his visions, or rather memorable relations, I willingly admit it. But in the Arcana Coelestia, no. 1967, and elsewhere, passages which deserve your attention, give satisfactory information of the difference which subsists between a prophet and a visionary; if you please you may add to the above nos. 1806, 1756; from The Divine Providence, no. 134; and from Heaven and Hell, nos. 76 and 249. The inmost, or celestial meaning of the Word, is itself the right doctrine of the church; the Word yields the doctrine, and the doctrine is the whole of the Word: now this cannot be taught better, by any means, than through a seer, forasmuch as it cannot be seen without an especial illumination, which a seer enjoys above others, his sight being opened by the Lord into the light of heaven.
"[II.] I do not know that any man ever treated the subject of the [literal] sense of the Scriptures as of greater holiness than the author in question; we may, therefore, directly and openly meet the accusation with which he is attacked, as one who speaks meanly and slightingly of the literal meaning of the Scriptures, and who consequently has committed errors. In the Arcana Coelestia, no. 7055, he proves, in a masterly manner, that the very words of the Scripture have been inspired. In the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture, which is professedly a work devoted to our present inquiry, he proves, with, in my opinion, the most comprehensive and unshaken arguments, that the literal meaning is the basis upon which the whole superstructure of the celestial and spiritual meaning of the Word rests, no. 37;
that in the literal meaning, Divine Truth is to be found in its fulness, holiness, and power, no. 50; that the doctrine of the church must be derived from the literal sense, and be confirmed thereby, no. 62; that through the literal meaning of the Word, conjunction is to be obtained with the Lord and consociation with the angels; and in no. 80, that in every single part [of the Word] there is a marriage of the Lord with the Church and thence a marriage of good with truth. Let the subject be only closely investigated, and not superficially looked into. In the same manner I should wish the following passages to be considered and properly weighed; Arcana Coelestia, nos. 10400, 10694, 6222, 9407; Apocalypse Revealed, I; not to mention those from the Arcana Coelestia, quoted in the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, no. 262. It is therefore manifest, that Swedenborg does not reject and despise, as he is so strongly charged with doing, the diligence necessary to be used in labouring to attain the knowledge of the literal sense of the Word, as if the same mere useless; so far from it, he has not only approved of that earnest application by his own example, but has even expressly recommended if in the passages that I have referred to above: for the purer and clearer the vessel is, out of which we drink a generous cordial, the more grateful and effectual will that cordial prove; and the more accurately a man is instructed in Holy Writ, agreeably to genuine philology, the more he is brought into a capacity to apprehend, with greater certainty, perfection, and clearness, the true meaning of any passage of Scripture which presents itself. As to my genuine opinion upon this subject, it may be seen from a short discourse upon the twofold method of interpreting the Sacred Scriptures, which I annex to this letter by way of appendix.
"[III.] With respect to the difficulty, which, dear and reverend Sir, so much affects you, namely, that Swedenborg, in some passages, has taught that the literal sense perishes as a shell without use, and that thereby the author contradicts himself; the manner in which we are to understand this, will be explained satisfactorily by a diligent consideration of nos. 1871-1876, in the Arcana Coelestia, taken in their connexion with what I have said above, and what I have further to remark.
In the other life, where man is a spirit, the natural and material ideas, which derived their origin from the literal sense, which has a terrestrial and worldly sound, perish, and do not appear again, forasmuch as the internal, spiritual, and celestial senses succeed them, which are accommodated to the nature of spirits; and even in this life, while man fixes attention upon the light of heaven, he does not so much observe the literal words and forms of expression of the Scriptures. This circumstance also takes place in private and general conversation, when ignorant and simple people count words, but the wise insist chiefly upon the purport and meaning of the speaker: some will recount verbatim the fine and ornamented expressions, while others despise, and even forget, the phraseology, but retain and weigh the importance of the subject. The wiser a man is, the less solicitous he is about words; it becomes a prudent man, carefully to weigh the things themselves, and not to adhere solely to the external, that is, the literal form of the discourse;--how much more, then, does it behove that man so to do who looks above nature? ... On this occasion, it may not be useless to consider and weigh with proper attention, the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scriptures, nos. 65, 66; also Arcana Coelestia, no. 2395, and The Intercourse between the Soul and the Body, no. 12. The chief obstacle which prevents most of the learned from thinking and speaking adequately of the letter of the Scripture, is undoubtedly this, that they dispute with too much insipidity, and disparage the Divine Word and Truth, which chiefly originates in their ignorance of the spiritual nature of things, because they are misled through the materiality of their ideas; but if we give a thorough consideration to the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture above mentioned, and withal consult the Arcana Coelestia, nos. 2763, 7055, 9094, with Heaven and Hell, no. 254, and the Apocalypse Revealed, no. 945, we shall be struck with such an astonishment at the Sacred Scripture, as to acknowledge how very wrong it is to be startled so much by writings similar in their nature.
"[IV.] This consideration relieves me from the necessity I should otherwise be under, of saying something respecting the science of correspondences, as being highly necessary for the interpretation of the Divine prophecies; nor will it cost any man much labour, to see into the meaning of the Word, divested of its material clothing; for example, how the words, horse, city, Jerusalem, and others, do and can contain something internal, as oil within the fruit; I say it will not cost any man much labour, who will not esteem it unworthy of him to give a thorough reading to those demonstrations, contained in the small volume on The White Horse, nos. 1-5, and the Apocalypse Revealed from beginning to end, but especially no. 907.
"[V.] Respecting the Last Judgment, and Swedenborg's explanation of the New Heaven and the New Earth, his work on these subjects, published in 1757, with its continuation in 1763, presents to us a sound knowledge concerning them. As to the doctrine of the resurrection, he everywhere sets at rest the keen understanding upon that subject, and that by arguments which he derives from the nature of both worlds: an intellect, which rises above the world and the senses, sees very easily what his sentiments are by means contrary to the Scripture, but, on the contrary, completely coincide with it.
"[VI.] But more important seems to be the charge, which you do not hesitate to bring against Swedenborg, namely, that he pays no regard to the analogy of faith and in his doctrine respecting the most Holy Trinity, does hold with the apostles, but with Schwenkfeld. This, I must allow, would be a very great and a very important error, which would eclipse every other excellence, if it were not visible that this charge cannot be attached to Swedenborg, and that the very method in which he unfolds this point is sufficient of itself to clear him from it. It may be admitted that the Schwenkfeldian method, as being easy to amend, may have the preeminence over others, but at the same time I believe it will require no great penetration to discover that Schwenkfeld and Swedenborg do not entertain the same principles. I wish, however, you would take the trouble to learn from my small treatise respecting the plan of John's writings, which I have annexed to this letter, that Swedenborg's doctrine on this point is justly held to be apostolic.
"[VII.] But you, reverend Sir, and your much esteemed colleague, Mr. Seitz, suppose that our great author has committed a blameable error respecting the sacred authority of Paul, by not acknowledging his and the other apostolic writings to be canonical, by refusing them the dignity of the Divine Word; this will be best cleared up, by a letter from Swedenborg himself which he wrote to me from Amsterdam, the 15th of April, 1766, as follows:--'In respect to the writings of the apostles and Paul, I have not quoted them in the Arcana Coelestia, because they are doctrinal writings, and consequently are not written in the style of the Word, like those of the prophets, of David, of the Evangelists, and the Book of Revelation. The style of the Word consists altogether of correspondences, wherefore it is effective of immediate communication with heaven; but in doctrinal writings there is a different style, which has indeed communication with heaven, but mediately. They were written thus by the apostles, that the new Christian Church might be commenced through them; wherefore matters of doctrine could not be written in the state of the Word, but they had to be expressed in such a manner, as to be understood more clearly and intimately. The writings of the apostles are, nevertheless, good books of the church, insisting upon the doctrine of charity and its faith as strongly as the Lord Himself has clone in the Gospels and, the Book of Revelation; as may be seen and found evident by every one who in reading them directs his attention to these points. That Paul's expression in Romans ii, 25, concerning Justification by Faith has been quite misunderstood, is proved in the Apocalypsis Revelata, no. 417, to which you may refer; wherefore the doctrine of Justification by Faith. Alone, which constitutes the theology of the Reformed churches at the present day, is built on an entirely false foundation.'
"Let us now judge of this charge against him. In truth, I could more readily and speedily do away with many of the errors with which he is reproached, and from which lie must be freed, if you, reverend Sir, would allow me to introduce, instead of my own arguments, Swedenborg's own defence, as exhibited in his writings, for surely there never was a man who wrote in such agreement with Scripture and reason.
"[VIII.] Miracles and prophecies carry no proofs of an enlightening conviction; besides we dare not look for them at this period of the world. To satisfy ourselves upon this point, let us examine Matt. xii. 32, 39, xvi. 1-4; Mark viii. 11, 12; Luke 54-56; John xx. as, and what Swedenborg himself says in his Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence, nos. 129-135, and Conjugial Love, no. 535. To me it appears that the most Divine seal, and the one most suitable to the state of all men, respecting Swedenborg's case, is this, that his principles harmonise with sound reason, and that a lover of his writings will find his was cleared by their means from so many doubts, so many contradictions, and so many doctrines revolting to sound reason. Truth, as far as it deserves this name, cannot but be comprehensible and in agreement with itself, if we are disposed to view and consider it in its own ground, and in its own order; but who can reach higher a revelation from God? This truth Swedenborg has brought to light, and by means ascribes it to himself, as several passages in his writings clearly prove; for example Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence, no. 135, and the latter part of the preface to the Apocalypse Revealed; also in the work concerning Conjugial Love, no. 532: and surely mankind never received the revelation of heavenly and Divine Truths with greater marks of certainty than the present; if, therefore, they are not accepted, when they are now so rationally presented, it cannot be expected that their acceptance can be accomplished by the assistance of miracles and prophecies; for how can heavenly doctrine became ours, if it be not accepted with our will and understanding? That Swedenborg has knowledge of hidden occurrences has been proved by a few well attested instances, but he is indisposed to avail himself of them to assent and credibility to his writings.
"[IX.] And further, reverend Sir, I would not wish you to take Swedenborg's declaration, in the conclusion of his work upon Conjugial Love, respecting the future publication of his doctrines, as if thereby he meant to set himself up for a prophet, and to maintain that in the course of two years the New Church will be established.
It is the doctrine of that Church, to which he alludes, and which he promised in two years should be published, as has accordingly taken place. For in a letter which he wrote to me from Amsterdam on the 20th of April last, he mentions as follows:-'I wonder that they still keep stirring up this affair at Gottenburg; I will complain of them at the next Diet, when I send over my Universa Theologia Novi Cli et Nov Ecclesi, which will leave the press towards the close of the month of June. I will send two copies of this work to each House, and request them to appoint for its consideration a general committee from all the Houses, in order to put an end to the affair in this way.'
"But previous to this, he wrote me a letter from Amsterdam, dated the 15th of April, 1769, wherein he informs me, 'That here [in Amsterdam] they frequently inquire respecting the New Church: When it will come? To which I answer: By degrees, in proportion as the doctrine of justification and imputation is extirpated; which perhaps will be brought about by this work, which is entitled Summaria Expositio Doctrin Nov Ecclesi qu per Novam Hierosolymam in Apocalypsi intelligitur. It is known that the Christian Church did not take its rise immediately after the ascension of Christ, but increased gradually, which is also understood by these words in the Revelation, 'And the woman flew into the desert, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent' (xii, 14). The serpent or dragon is that doctrine.
"[X.] I will leave it now to the judgment of candid minds (amongst whom I reckon and respect yourself, reverend Sir, with your son-in-law Mr. Seitz, and the sincere Karg, to whom I beg you to give my respects), whether they can regard the New Church, to which the whole Revelation of John refers, as a Swedenborgian invention, or not rather undoubtedly consider it as a work of the finger of God and our Lord, and as a church which is to be looked for with the most earnest desire.
"What man could invent such things of himself? asks Swedenborg in his Continuation concerning the Last Judgment, no. 7; and, accordingly, when I shall have heard, that what I have now written, though too long for a letter, yet, considering the importance of the matter, too short, has not displeased you, though in all the points I may not have given full satisfaction, I shall count it not a very small gain.
"Since Doctor Ros? who is at Stockholm, and myself, have not in express terms renounced to the King the Swedenborgian doctrines, our affair is to be brought before the Council of State, where it is to be further investigated and judged. The illustrious author, Swedenborg, wrote to me from Stockholm as follows:--'I know that the Lord Himself, our Saviour, will protect His church, especially against those who are not willing to enter by the true door into the fold, that is, into heaven, and who are called thieves and murderers: so says the Lord Himself, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved (John x. 1, 9.) I have been told from the Lord, through an angel from heaven, that I may securely sleep upon my pillow during the night, by which is to be understood that night in which the world at present lies with respect to the church.'
"But this may be enough for the present; farewell, my dear Sir, as a man that loves the truth above all things; continue your affection towards me, who am likewise a worshipper of truth. I am,
"Your humble servant,
"GABRIEL ANDREW BEYER.22
"Gottenburg, June 15, 1771."
To judge from tinger's printed remarks on Dr. Beyer's letter, it does not seem to have shaken his settled conviction that Swedenborg by unfolding the spiritual sense was destroying the letter of the Sacred Scripture. His strictures on Dr. Beyer's letter have been abundantly answered by Dr. Im. Tafel in his German edition of the "Swedenborg Documents," pp. 391-404.
From all that precedes it appears very clear that tinger was a man of a strong will, and that he clung tenaciously to the principles he had once adopted.
This same tenacity he displayed in connection with his confiscated work on the "Earthly and Heavenly Philosophy of Swedenborg;" for nothing daunted by repeated refusals of his applications for a release of the confiscated works, he applied again in the summer of 1771. This application, however, was again indignantly refused by the government in a decree addressed to the Consistory dated September 7, 1771.
The last work which tinger wrote in connection with Swedenborg, he published through the agency of Hasenkamp, the principal of the gymnasium at Duisburg, who gave to it the following imposing title, which, however, did not please tinger: Des durch Demuth grossen Gelechrten, des Hochwrdigen Herzogl. Würtembergischen Raths, Prlaten und Abts, Herrn Friedrich Christoph tingers, hchstwichtiger Unterricht vom Hohenpriesterthum Christi zur richtigen Beurtheilung der Nachrichten des Herrn von Swedenborg (Most important Instruction respecting the High Priesthood of Christ for a proper understanding of the information furnished by Mr. Swedenborg, by the Scholar great in humility, Frederic Christopher tinger, Councillor, Prelate, and Abbot of the Duke of Würtemberg), Frankfort and Leipzig, 1772.
In that work (p. 47) he bears the following testimony respecting Swedenborg, where he can trace a few of the ideas which were furnished to him by Dr. Beyer: "Swedenborg from his early childhood has been innocent, pious, orderly, and not at all imaginative. Geometry, algebra, and mechanics preserved him from all extravagances .... Diotrephes spoke violently against John, the favourite disciple of Jesus. Need we at all wonder at Swedenborg being so caluminated? Satan delights in this; it is food for him when theologians assail one another in such a grim fashion. You cannot necessarily be charged with indifference by not singing praises in favour of those who delight in branding others as heretics. I have often cried to God while studying Wolf's philosophy, and also while studying Swedenborg. Yet no Elihu comes, as in the case of Job, wherefore we shall have to wait. What is hidden in darkness, the Lord will bring to the light."
Having given an account of all the public utterances of tinger on the subject of Swedenborg, we shall produce some of his private utterances to his friends:
E.
EXTRACTS FROM TINGER'S LETTERS TO COUNT VON CASTELL.304*
* The reverences in these extracts are made to Ehmann's "Life and Letters of tinger," Stuttgart, 1859.
1765. (1.) "Chancellor Reuss [of Tübingen] about three weeks ago shewed me a letter from the son of Blume, the chaplain of the court, who had conversed with the old gentleman, Swedenborg. He from having been the greatest philosopher, has become a small apostle. For fifteen years already his mission has been to describe the invisible world (l) in respect to the state of the most blessed angelic spirits, (2) in respect to the intermediate state, and (3) in respect to hell; and indeed, in accordance with the pure and clear words of the spirits themselves. His work is entitled 'Arcana Coelestia, or the Heavenly Mysteries, which are discovered in the Word of God in the book of Genesis, together with the wonderful things which have been seen in the world of spirits and the heaven of angels,' Vol. I, 1749. The book is printed in large quarto. I am willing to translate it, if my friends will defray the expenses of publication. Swedenborg in his old age journeyed to Holland, where he had it printed without his name [?]. It contains wonderful, astonishing, unheard of, and important things. His spiritual experiences are beautiful, but his explanations of Scripture are one-sided. I am not disturbed by this; I am able to combine it all, fur I am not a theologian of one stripe only. But what a wonderful book this is! Prof. Krafft says that the information contained therein is so very detailed, that it is better to pass into eternity with faith alone than with such a detailed account" (no. 547, p. 676).
1765. (2.) "My book on Swedenborg* is a philosophical essay. Every one is at liberty, if he is willing to take the trouble, to compare it with the Sacred Scripture. The eight philosophies which are contained in the second Volume, are just as important, on account of the wish expressed by Spener, and their relation to Jacob Böhme40" (no. 550, p. 677).
* Earthly and Heavenly Philosophy," &c.
1765. (3.) "I am not at all surprised that Swedenborg is not to your taste: for what he says must be compared with many places in the Sacred Scripture. According to the laws order, a transitory state must precede the definite state in the other life. All spirits, according to Swedenborg, are first in a transitory, volatile state, before they reach a firm and definite state (Heb. xii, 27). All spirits must await what the Lord who fills the heavens will do (Acts iii, 21). No one is made perfect without the last (Heb. xi, 40). All must come to the great gathering (2 Thess. ii, 1). It is therefore not at all wonderful that the blessed should first have to pass through the state of the spirits, as chslin has related to Schill, the school-master; as Rosenroth has related to his cousin, &c. The Lord Himself will not appear to the faithful, until in the societies of love they first purged of the fantasies which cleave to them from the world; and before they can see Christ personally, they must be with Christ in the order of Christ, i. e. they must be influenced by Christ, yet without seeing Him. It is grace enough for them to know that He is preparing a place for them until that day, when He will appear to them. Why! every day of our life we must strive to lose something of our childish imaginations. Who imagines that he is able to ascend, and bring Christ down? This, however, is the most difficult lesson for us to learn. Yet the ascent on high is awaiting us. In short, I am very sure, that I shall enjoy Christ, in whom I have hoped, in a manner accommodated to the state of spirits (no. 552, p. 677).
1766. (4.) "In Swedenborg we must look for nothing else but his special gift, viz. that the Lord at His own good pleasure has opened his eyes. He is no theologian skilled in exegesis, but a miner and a philosopher. All conclusions are liable to be wrong. Still your assertion that he upsets the foundations of religion, and talks mere fantasies, requires a better limitation. You do not judge there in a spiritual manner, but simply en gnral. Such assertions I am prepared to meet logicissime (i. e. with all the appliances of logic), and on that ground I am ready to challenge all the universities.
I know that I shall refute them all by the Word of God: and especially those fine gentlemen, the galants esprits who do not understand it; scarcely two or three of them understand it, and least of all Chancellor Reuss. I fear them all as little as I do will-o'-the-wisps; I blow them all asunder" (no. 559, p. 679).
1766. (5.) "As you find so much fault with Swedenborg because he, as you think, upsets the foundations of religion, I beg of you to tell or to write to me, which of Swedenborg's doctrines, or which of his theses, upset these foundations. Do you really know what you say? I believe not. He does not deny the Lord, i. e. God in Christ. He declares that all are influenced by Him, and that all is due to Him. The blood of Christ he does not regard as blood, but as the force joined to glory by which all things are made new. The departed do not see Christ immediately after death; it is enough that they are with Him. If he errs by giving way too much to his especial gift, then he errs. Therefore let us examine him. My book is a pure examination" (no. 562, p. 680).
F.
TINGER TO HARTMANN.*
* K. F. Hartmann, was a "Repetent," a theological instructor, in the University of Tübingen when tinger addressed his letters to him. He made himself known by his labours in connection with the Würtemberg hymn-book. He died in 1815. tinger's letters were taken to America by his son, Prof. Hartmann of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and were kindly remitted for publication to the editor of "tinger's Life and Correspondence."
1768, March 16. (1.) "I cannot send you Swedenborg's work [on 'Conjugial Love']. It consists of mere dreams, which are mixed up with much of his own, as can scarcely be otherwise. For who is able to pronounce ineffable things without alloying them? As he continually writes something new, I wrote to him that he should visit me. The internal and external sense he explains poorly (Document 238, p. 269) by a parable with a kernel, from which the outer shell is removed. He is not acquainted with the points and tittles of the Hebrew language of which Christ says, 'Whoever shall break one of these least commandments, shall be called the least' (Matt, v. 19).
Swedenborg at some future time will play a wonderful part. To Leibnitz he assigns a place in heaven to Luther one below him, and even to Moses, Oh, how much has he been able to see for himself! The skeptical Mr. von Bernerdin worships his nonsense, as you may see from the enclosed letter, which you will please return soon" (no. 589, p. 718).
1770, March 9. (2.) "Swedenborg's work on the 'Earths in the Universe' is being translated into German. It contains many philosophical observations, whether the whole be taken as a fiction, or not. What a great thing it is for him, to connect the idea of the Universe and of the infinity of heaven and of the mansions there with the idea of the kingdom of Christ and of the kingdom of heaven (no. 613, p. 743).
1770. (3.) "Just think of it, not a single copy of Swedenborg's work on the Planets can be had. All the copies were sent out of the country, because they were afraid. I have bought one here myself, which I send to Klemm for his book" (no. 617, p. 745).
1771, April 22. (4.) "I received a letter from Swedenborg from Gottenburg. Whether he is in Holland or not, I do not know. The newspapers state it; but on what grounds?" (no. 630, p. 763).
1771, August 1. (5.) "My Schwedische Urkunden (Swedish Documents, see p. 1033) are not yet done. Swedenborg has already sent me his book [The True Christian Religion].
"I have also received a letter from Hamburg [Document 256, p. 484*]. The most singular thing in it is that he heard the late King speaking with the Queen who is still living. This I explain according to Mischnat Chassidim with the [scanner unable to insert symbols] (zelem-image). For Swedenborg says that the Queen did not know that her [scanner unable to insert symbols] (image) had been conversing with the King. I remember here of Augustine, how some one in Carthage explained to him Cicero's book on eloquence, without that person knowing anything about it.
There are many other similar things; let us find out their principles.
* This letter was also published by tinger in his "Swedish Documents," pp. 107-113.
"The controversy with Swedenborg* will either die out, or else assume larger dimensions. I am at present engaged in writing to him, and also to Beyer" (no. 633, p. 763).
* tinger probably means here the Gottenburg affair.
1771, August 17. (6.) "Swedenborg has sent me his new book [T. C. R.]. There his real views are disclosed. The Lord's Coming is not to be taken literally. He (Swedenborg) is the Lord's Advent.* My comments on Swedenborg and his cause are yet too mild. My book [Schwedische Urkunden] is not yet ready; more will be printed with it, perhaps also the letters from Klemm. Now is the time, when the outbirths of the strangest mixtures reach the day-light. A book and a letter of Swedenborg's have been sent to me with the title, Elias to the whole world. Strange stuff. I wrote to Swedenborg that according to Jesus' words, 'Another will come in His name, him ye will accept;' likewise, that according to John v, Jesus would not be recognized without Moses; but Swedenborg simply on his own credit. I do not know what he will say to this" (no. 634, p. 766).
* Swedenborg's own words in the T. C. R. 779, are as follows: "The Lord's Second advent takes place by a man, before whom He manifested Himself in person, and whom He filled with His Spirit, so that he might teach the doctrines of the New Church by the Word from Himself."
1771, September 9. (7.) "I am in great trouble with Swedenborg. I wish some one would extract a compendium of his theology, and compare it with that which I presented in my 'Sylloge.'* Then every one might judge for himself. I do not know what to think of him. He intends to go to Lavater.186 He will take him to task. It is certain therefore that he will come to Tübingen; but do not mention it to any one. Think of reasons wherewith to prove in the strongest manner the reality and materiality of the city of God.
Lavater also is wrong (Vol. IX, p. 275), he is too sweeping with all his worlds.... The book in which Swedenborg will be criticized is not yet finished" (no. 635, p. 767).
* Sylloge Theologi, a Compendium of Theology deduced from the idea of life, and reduced into six sections, 1. Respecting God, 2. Respecting man, 3. On sin, 4. On grace, 5. On the church, 6. On the last states; each section treated intelligently and peacefully by questions 1. According to common sense, 2. according to the mysteries of Scripture, and 3. According to dialectic formula. Heilbronn, 1753.
1771, September 19. (8.) "Swedenborg is really said to be in Frankfort. I presume that he will go to Switzerland by way of Stuttgart and Tübingen. Perhaps he will also come to Murrhard. His matters might be mended, if he would but purge a little all he has said, and if he would not obtrude his hieroglyphics [his correspondences] in such a shallow manner. Yet all he says is foolish. I am troubled at his writing in so silly a manner. According to Swedenborg the Second Coming of the Lord does not take place in person, but it is effected in the Word, through a man, before whom He has revealed Himself, and whom he has filled with His Spirit. The glory of Jehovah is to be revealed, and all flesh shall see it (Isa. x, 3. i). How very presumptuous he is, thus to diminish the force of the sense of the letter! I have criticized somewhat the Stuttgart review; perhaps the criticism will be appended to the book. It is not yet finished. Perhaps I shall yet become Swedenborg's strongest adversary; for he is just like Semler,305 only in a different sense; he renders weak and volatile the full sense of the Sacred Scripture. Time will show what there is to be done. I am in great trouble. If he should visit me, I shall put down the substance of our conversation. It remains true for ever, that he has his certain department, viz. to discover to the world the spiritual world, but in order that men may not follow him too exclusively, the Lord permits that he should offend thus against sound reason.
"The ten sheets about Swedenborg [Schwedische Urkunden] will be extremely rare. They will all be sent out of the country; but I shall send to you as many as you want. They will cost from 15 to 20 kreutzers a piece," &c. (no. 636, p. 768).
1771, December 24. (9.) "I received curious accounts from Swedenborg. He has conversed both with Benge183 and with Fricker.306 Both, he says, are well off. Fricker it seems opposed him.
Swedenborg says that Fricker is constantly with me, that he inserts himself into my ideas. Swedenborg is expected in Amsterdam. He will yet come before his death. Hasencamp of Duisburg writes for information; he desires to compare Swedenborg with the Sacred Scripture,
"The 'Schwedische Urkunden' will be rare; it is almost impossible to obtain a copy; only 260 copies were printed" (no. 639, p. 770).
1772, February 11. (10.) "Madame von Seckendorf wrote to Swedenborg to visit me, and to talk over our differences. I do not know whether he will come" (no. 643, p. 772).
1778, March 23. (11.) "Please to sell no more of the books on Swedenborg, as they are so very scarce. Hasenkamp also is unpleasant to me an account of Swedenborg. I hear nothing about him whether he is dead or alive" (no. 648, p. 776).
DOCUMENT 315.
WM. COOKWORTHY'S219 TESTIMONY.
Mr. Wm. Cookworthy's grandson, who published a life of his grandfather in 1854 bearing the title "Memoir of William Cookworthy, formerly of Plymouth, Devonshire," says on p. 57:
"Shortly before Swedenborg's death, which took place early in the year 1772, my grandfather was in London, and went with Hartley, to visit him at his lodgings in Cold Bath Square, Clerkenwell. The area of the square has long been filled with houses, but, in those days, was a green, whither children used to resort in their play hours, and where the aged theologian would often join them, to distribute gingerbread among them. The particulars of the interview of the three men have been lost [see Document 263, p. 539], except that it was impossible to avoid noticing the remarkable innocence of Swedenborg, and how, on inviting him to dine with them, he politely excused himself, adding that his dinner was already prepared, which proved to be a simple meal of bread and milk."
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NOTES TO VOLUME II.
NOTE 149.
THE AUTHENTICITY OF SWEDENBORG'S DIARY FOR 1743 AND 1744.
Since the publication of Swedenborg's Diary for l743 and 1744, from which Documents 207, 208, and 209, are taken, the admirers of Swedenborg have been divided as to its authenticity; and as its genuineness is still regarded by many as a debated question, it becomes necessary for us fully to state our reasons for believing in its authenticity.
The evidence on which we decide in favour of its genuineness is both external and internal.
The external evidence is furnished by an examination of the original order in which this Diary is written, and by a comparison of the handwriting contained therein with that of Swedenborg in his acknowledged writings. This was done by the editor of these documents during his stay in Stockholm in 1871, when he could discover no circumstance whatever connected with the book that indicated spuriousness; the binding, paper, and the whole style of the book being evidently of the period to which it ostensibly belongs, and the writing being like that of Swedenborg at that time.
The internal evidence of the genuineness of the document, which is of greater value, is furnished by the following points, which will be found discussed at full length in separate notes:
A. References to parts of this Diary in other writings of Swedenborg (Note 164, vii).
B. The historical character of the persons mentioned in this Diary verified (Note 160).
C. Collateral evidence respecting Swedenborg's whereabouts in 1743 and 1744 (Note 163).
D. Collateral evidence with respect to Swedenborg's studies in 1744, as indicated in the Diary (Note 164).
E. Collateral evidence with regard to the bodily and mental states experienced by Swedenborg in 1744, and described in this Diary (Note 162).
F. Swedenborg's philosophy of dreams, showing that the principles by which he explained his dreams in 1744, are identical with the system of correspondences propounded by him in his later theological writings (Note 161).
G. The philosophy of this Diary identical with that taught in Swedenborg's philosophical and theological writings (Note 166).
H. An examination of the theology of this Diary (Note 165).
NOTE 150.
THE COUNTESS DE LA GARDIE.
Concerning the De la Gardie family, see Note 141, Vol. I. The Countess De la Gardie, whose meeting with Swedenborg at Ystad is recorded in Document 207, was no doubt the widow of Count Magnus Julius De la Gardie, who died in 1741. His widow, Countess Hedwig Catharina, after her husband's death removed to Paris, where she became a catholic, and died in 1745. She had four sons, two of whom, it seems, accompanied their mother and two sisters to Paris. One of them Brita Sophia, likewise became a catholic, and the other Hedwig Catharina, in 1752 was married to Count Frederic Axel von Fersen,151 who had accompanied them to Paris in 1743.
NOTE 151.
COUNT FERSEN.
Count Frederic Axel von Fersen, son-in-law of Countess De la Gardie,150 was born in 1719. In 1743 he entered the French army, and became colonel of a regiment raised by himself. After his return to Sweden in 1750 he took a leading part in politics, and was chosen three times in succession presiding officer of Swedish Diet. In 1770 he became field-marshal, and died in 1794.
NOTE 152.
MAJOR LANTINGSHAUSEN.
Major Jacob Albrecht von Lantingshausen was Count Fersen's151 brother-in-law. He entered the French army in 1723, and in 1743, when he was met by Swedenborg at Ystad, was major of the regiment called Alsace; in 1744 he became major-general, and in the following year left the French service, and returned to Sweden. In 1760 he was created a baron, and after having filled several important offices died in 1769.
NOTE 153.
COLONEL SCHWERIN.
The Colonel Schwerin, on whom Swedenborg called at Stralsund in 1743 (see Document 207), was Claus Philip von Schwerin, who was born in 1689. In 1737 he became colonel of the regiment by which Stralsund was garrisoned; and in 1743 commandant of the fortress. He died in 1748 (see Anrep, Vol. Iii, p. 690).
NOTE 154.
DR. CARL JESPER BENZELIUS.
Concerning Dr. Carl Jesper Benzelius, see Document 9, p. 89, Vol. I, and also Note 99. To the particulars which are there recorded concerning him, we add here that in 1742 he received the appointment of ordinary court chaplain, and in 1743 and 1744 he undertook his second journey abroad (see "Biografiskt Lxicon") Vol. II, p. 105), which accounts for Swedenborg's meeting him at Stralsund in 1743.
NOTE 155.
BARON HAMILTON.
The Baron Hamilton whom Swedenborg met at Hamburg in 1743 was no doubt Baron Charles Frederic Hamilton, who was court-marshal (Hofmarskalk) at the time, a capacity in which he attended upon Adolphus Frederic,159 Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, after he had been elected Crown-prince of Sweden. Baron Hamilton died suddenly in 1753.
NOTE 156.
BARON REUTERHOLM.
The Baron of that name, whom Swedenborg met in 1743 at the court of Adolphus Frederic159 (see Document 207), was Baron Esbjrn Christian Reuterholm, who was born in 1716, and who was royal chamberlain at the time Swedenborg met him. In 1765 he became senator, and died in 1773.
NOTE 157.
TRIEVALD.
Among those whom Swedenborg states he met at Hamburg in 1743 (see Document 207), was one of the name of Trievald. Samuel Trievald, a well-known Swedish scholar, had entered the service of Holstein in 1728. He became governor of Prince Augustus,158 and died in January, 1743. The Trievald whom Swedenborg met, was either a son of this Samuel Trievald, or else his brother Mrten, a well known civil engineer in the Swedish service.
NOTE 158.
PRINCE AUGUSTUS.
Prince Frederic Augustus, to whom Swedenborg was presented in Hamburg in 1743 (see Document 207), was a younger brother of Adolphus Frederic.159 He was born in 1711, and succeeded his brother as Prince-Bishop of Lbeck in 1751; in 1773, he succeeded to the earldom or county of Oldenburg, which in 1774 was raised to the rank of duchy. He died in 1785.
NOTE 159.
ADOLPHUS FREDERIC.
Adolphus Frederic, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, was elected Crown-Prince of Sweden on July 3, 1743; thus about six weeks before Swedenborg was presented to him (see Document 207). He was at that time administrator of the duchy of Holstein-Gottorp and Prince-Bishop of Lbeck; in 1750, he abdicated these claims in favor of his brother Frederic August,158, and in 1751 ascended the Swedish throne. For further particulars respecting him, see Note 11, Vol. I.
NOTE 160.
HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE PERSONS MENTIONED IN THE DIARY OF 1743 AND 1744.
We propose to give here a complete list of all the persons whose names are mentioned in the Diary of 1743 and 1744. Those names which we were able to identify are printed in italics; and references are made to those parts of the "Documents" where their historical character is established.
The Diary of 1743 and 1744 supplies the text of four documents, viz., 134, 207, 208, and 209. Names of persons occur in three of these documents, viz. 134, 207, and 209.
I. In Document 134 are mentioned the names of the following mercantile firms:
Peter Hultman, see Note 111.
Messrs. Anthon and Johan Grill, see Note 112.
Johan Spicker, London, see Note 117.
Balair, The Hague.
Messrs. Muillman and Sons, [Amsterdam?]
Franz Jennings, see Note 114.
Mr. Mackei, London.
By a reference to Note 111 it will be seen that Peter Hultman was Swedenborg's banker in Stockholm from 1737 to 1764. Concerning Messrs. Anthon and Johan Grill we learn from Document 135, B., that Swedenborg's letters were to be addressed to their care in 1748, and from Note 112 that Swedenborg sometimes dined at their house in Amsterdam. Of Johan Spieker we read is the "Anteckningar rrande Svenska Kyrkan i London," that he was born in Finland in 1685, and that he arrived in London in 1712, where he established a banking business, and died in 1775. Franz Jennings was born in 1692, and amassed a large fortune as merchant and banker in Stockholm; from Document 137 we learn that Swedenborg in 1759 invested a sum of 10,000 dalers in the firm of Jennings and Finlay. From all of this, however, it appears that four out of the seven mercantile firms mentioned in Document 134, not only had a real existence in 1743, but also that Swedenborg was in the habit of transacting his business through these firms.
Besides these mercantile firms there is also mentioned in Document 134 the estate of the late Celsing (Celsingens Sterbhus); this refers to the estate of Gustavus Celsing, Chancellor of the Court (Hofkanslr), who died in 1743.
All this, however, is quite sufficient to establish the authenticity of the Diary for 1743 and 1744, so far as Document 134 is concerned.
II. In Document 207 occur the names of the following persons:
Countess De la Gardie, Note 150.
Count Fersen, Note 151.
Major Lantingshausen, Note 152.
Magister Klingenberg.
General Stenflycht, see footnote on p. 92, Vol. II.
Captain Schchta.*
* This is no doubt the "Kapten Schiechta" mentioned by Linnus in his "Anteckningar fver Nemesis Divina" (p. 10), published by Prof. Fries, Upsal, 1848.
Colonel Schwerin, Note 153.
Superintendent Lper.
Postmaster Crivits.
Carl Jesper Benzelius, Note 154.
Baron Hamilton, Note 155.
Reuterholm, Note 156.
Trievald, Note 157.
Assessor Awermann.
Adolphus Frederic, Note 159.
Prince Augustus, Note 158.
Knig, see footnote on p. 82, Vol. II.
Lesch, the Marshal-in-Chief.
Out of eighteen persons whose names occur in Swedenborg's private Diary for 1743, we are thus able historically to identify thirteen. Of the Countess de la Gardie and Count Fersen we know besides that in 1743 they travelled from Sweden to Paris; and of Major Lantingshausen that in 1743 he was major of the French regiment Alsace, and thus was stationed abroad. With General Stenflycht Swedenborg became acquainted in Paris in 1736, and concerning Claus Philip von Schwerin we learn in Note 153 that he was commandant of Stralsund in 1743, when he was visited by Swedenborg. C. J. Benzelius started on his second journey abroad in 1743, as is shown in Note 154, so that it seems quite probable that he should have met his uncle Swedenborg in Stralsund in 1743. Again all that is recorded about the Crown-Prince Adolphus Frederic and Prince Augustus and their attendants, Barons Hamilton and Reuterholm, Trievald and Knig, agrees with history, and it is not at all unlikely that Swedenborg should have met them all in Hamburg in 1743.
III. Most of the persons whose names Swedenborg mentions in Document 209, he saw in his dreams. The few persons whom he met in reality, are the following:
Ambassador Preis (no. 85), Note 171.
Pastor Pombo (nos. 85, 86).
H. Hinr. Posch or Pasch (no. 117).
Prof. lreich (nos. 140, 208), Note 109.
Preis, as we see from Note 171, was the Swedish ambassador at the Hague from 1725, and died there in 1759, so that Swedenborg must have met him at the Hague in 1743. Of Prof. lreich we read in the ABiografiskt Lexicon," Vol. X, p. 202 that he was abroad from 1739 to 1744, so that it is not at all unlikely that he met Swedenborg in London in 1744.
IV. The following persons Swedenborg mentions in his dreams:
Our Successor, i. e. Adolphus Frederic (no. 4), Note 159.
Carl Broman (no. 4), Note 113.
Erland Broman (nos. 4, 19), Note 167.
Dr. Hesselius (no. 6), Note '76.
King Charles [XII] (nos. 13, 102, 105, 116, 122), Note 3.
Bishop Swedberg (nos. 29, 74, 145, 151, 160), Document 10.
Swab (no. 48), Note 66, A.
Sister Caisa [i. e. Catharina] (no. 63), Note 5.
Sister Hedwig (nos. 71, 191), Note 5.
Doctor Morus (nos. 76, 77), Note 66, C.
Henning Gyllenborg (no. 81), Note 170.
Kning (no. 97), see footnote on p. 82, Vol. D.
Prof. Winbom (no. 97), Note 172.
King Frederic (no. 127), Note 4.
Brother Eliezer (no. 129), see Document 9, p. 84, no. 6.
Brother Jesper (no. 132), Note 52.
Bergenstjerna (no. 136), Note 126.
Ericus Benzelius (no. 146), Note 6.
Brita Behm (no. 152), Note 50.
Schwede (no. 152), Note 50.
The two Rosenadlers (no. 152), Note 51, and footnote on p. 200, Vol. II.
Count Horn (no. 152), Note 104.
Assessor B[enzelstjerna] (no. 164), Note 8.
D. H. (no. 164).
Didron (no. 169), see footnote on p. 205, Vol. II.
Secretary Bierchenius (no. 189), Note 129.
Lagerberg (no. 190), Note s6.
Ehrenpreus (no. 190), Note 173.
Ulrica Adlersten (no. 191), see Document 9, p. 85, no. 3.
[Albrecht] Schnsrm (no. 191), see Document 9, p. 85, no. 3.
NOTE 161.
SWEDENBORG'S PHILOSOPHY OF DREAMS.
The general theory of dreams is stated by Swedenborg in the Adversaria, Vol. II, nos. 182 to 184, in these words: "With respect to dreams in particular I desire simply to state here that they are induced on man by spirits. Those dreams by which the future is revealed, and also truths, are caused by the spirits of God-Messiah [i. e. by angels], but other dreams by spirits that are not of God-Messiah; those dreams, however, by which men are deceived are induced by evil spirits, and thus by the devil's crew. They express themselves either by the living voice, or, most frequently by representations, of which there are innumerable kinds; and unless a person know these kinds, it is impossible for him to know the signification of representative dreams. For they are representations of things from heaven by means of such things chiefly as are seen upon earth, and thus by the things of nature; and sometimes these representations are so intricate, that their meaning can be unravelled only when the various modes of representation are known. That such is the case appears most clearly from the dreams of Joseph and also of Pharaoh, and likewise from the prophets, where various things concerning dreams are recorded. I need not mention here visions which are altogether similar to dreams; nor representations which are like them, and which sometimes appear as in clear daylight to the life in a state of wakefulness, before and after sleep; nor, finally, real representations when objects appear present in a similar manner, as when one man is present before another man--this last kind of representation, however, took place with me, when I was in a different state."
After thus speaking of dreams, visions, and representations in a general way, Swedenborg adds: "That these things are so, I can attest. and their being so ought the less to be doubted because, by the Divine mercy of God-Messiah, they have happened so frequently, that they have become quite familiar to me. I learned them partly by dreams which I had at first during a number of years, when I learned something of their real signification, and partly by the other revelations [i. e. by visions and representations]; and also by additional revelations, as, for instance, when the very letters appeared written before my eyes, and were read to me &c. &c. But I am not yet permitted to say more concerning them." This he wrote in 1746.
After this personal statement he continues: "The dreams produced by spirits with some are mere illusions, and contain hardly anything except mere diversions originating in the things suggested by the blood and past thoughts. In respect to the dreams themselves, they are, as already remarked, excited by spirits; and this has been made so manifest to me, that I know it to be most certain; since I have conversed frequently with the very spirits by whom these things are caused, and hence have been most fully instructed that they flow in from no other source."
Again we read in the Arcana Coelestia, "There are three kinds of dreams. The first comes from the Lord mediately by heaven; of this kind were the prophetical dreams, concerning which we may read in the Word. The second kind comes by means of angelic spirits ... whence the men of the Most Ancient Church had their dreams, which were instructive. The third kind comes from the spirits who are near man when he sleeps; this kind of dreams is also significative. Fantastical dreams, however, have a different origin" (no. 196).
Concerning the dreams which flow in from the Lord through heaves, we read: "Those dreams which flow in from the Lord through heaven, never appear otherwise than according to representatives. If any one, therefore, knows not what the various objects in nature represent; and especially if he has no knowledge at all that anything represents, he cannot but believe that dreams are mere comparisons, like those which every one uses in common discourse. They are indeed comparisons, but such as correspond, and are presented in reality in the world of spirits, when the angels who are in the interior heaven converse respecting the spiritual and celestial things of the Lord's kingdom" (Arcana Coelestia, no. 5115).
Of the manner in which the ideas of angels are turned into corresponding images in the world of spirits, and are represented by dreams in the minds of men, we read in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 4033, as follows: "The ideas of the speech of the angels were so represented, that their conversation in general and in particular, was represented to me in a dream. They were told, and they perceived also, that the very same conversations might have descended into, and might have been presented by, an indefinite number of other representations, according to the spirits around me, end thus according to my state; so that an infinite number of other dreams may result from the same speech, or from the same ideas of speech; for the memories of men are recipient vessels, which receive ideas according to the variations of their forms, and according to their states." Compare also Arcana Coelestia, no. 1980.
From these passages may be deduced the following principles:
First. Dreams are either significative or fantastical.
Secondly. Significative dreams come either from the Lord through heaven, and are prophetic; or they come from angelic spirits, and are instructive; or, finally, they come from the spirits who are near man when he sleeps, and are simply significative.
Thirdly. Significative dreams are representations of the ideas of God, of angels, and of spirits by means of correspondences.
Fourthly. The correspondences by which the ideas of God, of angels, and of spirits are represented in dreams, are according to the state of the spirits who are with man when he sleeps, and according to the state of man's own memory.
Let us now make an application of this general theory of dreams to those dreams of Swedenborg which are recorded in Document 209.
First. Those dreams must either be significative or fantastical. According to Swedenborg's own testimony in 1748, those dreams were significative; for he says in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 2951,
"Before my mind was opened so that I could converse with spirits, [and consequently, before 1745, see Note 162,] I had dreams during several years, by which I was informed of the things concerning which I was writing," and in the Adversaria, Vol. II, no. 183, which he wrote in 1746, he says: "At first I had dreams during a number of years, when I learned something of their real signification."
Secondly. Those significative dreams came to him either from the Lord through heaven, and were prophetic, or they came from angelic spirits, and were instructive, or they came from the spirits by whom he was surrounded, and were simply significative. According to his own testimony those dreams came from the Lord either as direct messages, or as permissions; for he says in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 3177, "From my past life I was able to see that every thing therein [and hence also his significative dreams] was governed by the Lord by means of those things that had been produced or done by me;" and again he says in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 1647, "What I have learned from representations and visions is from the Lord alone." This also is plainly stated in no. 116 of the Diary of 1744, where we read, "This signifies that God speaks with me, and that I comprehend only the smallest portion of it because it is in representations, of which I understand as yet but very little."
Thirdly. As all significative dreams, which come from the Lord through heaven, consist of correspondences, so also did the significative dreams of Swedenborg.
Fourthly. As the correspondences in significative dreams are according to the states of the spirits that surround man when he sleeps, and also according to the state of his own memory, so also the significative dreams of Swedenborg were according to the states of the spirits by whom he was surrounded, and also according to his own memory; for the spirits that are with man put on all the states of his memory (cfr. Arcana Coelestia no. 5853).
How the state of his own memory influenced the nature of his dreams Swedenborg explains in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 4404, where he says: "I dreamt again a dream, but a common one like those of others; I dreamt that a certain man had been speaking with me. After I awoke I related the whole of my dream from beginning to end. The angels said that this agreed entirely with the things on which they had been conversing; not indeed that these things were identical with those that appeared in the dream, for they were altogether different; but the thoughts of their conversation were turned into these things in such a manner that they became representatives and correspondences, and indeed every least thing, to such a degree, that there was nothing that did not coincide. I conversed with them on influx, and how their thoughts were turned into entirely different things, from which it could not possibly be known that they had such an origin; and, indeed, because the influx took place into ideas which were acquired from different sources. For each thing with them excited something consonant with such an idea; this idea in the case of my dream consisted of a person, from the acts of whose life and from conversations with whom I had formed this idea, that he was in natural truth. The angels had been conversing on natural truth, wherefore this person was represented, and what he spoke and acted followed in order in a like manner. Hence may in some measure appear what the nature of influx is; and that that which occurs first is retained for a subject, and that the rest follows from this subject in order; so that there results thence a sort of historical representation."
I. From this passage results the following first principle, according to which Swedenborg interpreted his significntive dreams in 1744, viz., Some of the persons he saw in these dreams represent those qualities and states which he had discovered in them, or which were prominent in his mind when he was thinking of them.
Dr. Hesselius76 (no. 6) = medicine.
Erland Broman167 (no. 19) = luxury, riches, pride.
Anders Swab66A (no. 48) = pride, arrogance.
Sister Caisa, i. e. Catharines (no. 63) = appearance of purity, with impurity.
Dr. Morus66C (nos. 76, 77) = anatomy.
Knig, p. 82, Vol. II (no. 97) = infidelity.
Prof. Winboll172 (no. 97) = Divine worship.
Bergenstjerna125 (no. 136) = a commission to which Swedenborg would be appointed.
Secretary Bierchenius139 (no. 189) = the College of Mines.
Lagerberg86 and Ehrenpreus173 (no. 190) = worldly-mindedness.
II. Again we read in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 4179: "During the whole night several of my acquaintances were around met and I was asleep; I was with them and among them in my sleep under the guise of other persons."
From this it follows that in his significative dreams Swedenborg appeared to himself under the guise of other persons. He thus appeared to himself in his dreams of 1744 under the guise of Henning Gyllenborgl70 in no. 81; of his brother Eliezer in no. 129; of his brother Jesper in no. 132; of Brita Behm50 in no. 152; and of Didron in no. 169.
III. In the "Spiritual Diary," no. 4191, we read as follows:
"Again some were conversing within the sphere of the angelic spirits, while I was asleep, and I dreamt that my father [as he was] during life fell into the water, so that he became immersed in it; I rescued him from it and carried him. After I awoke they said they had conversed on what I had written from the Word. The Word had been previously represented with me by my father [as he had been] during life, and thus their conversation descended into such a representative."
This statement of Swedenborg we find borne out by no. 160 of the Diary of 1744, where we read as follows: "I saw my father in a beautiful surplice before a congregation. This meant, that I was then beginning to read the Bible in the evening.
IV. A. Swedenborg states in no. 149, Document 209, "All objects of the sciences are represented to me under the form of women." This agrees with the principle of correspondence laid down in his theological writings, according to which virgins signify the affection of truth (T. C. R. 205, A. E. 863, C. L. 293), and also the sciences (A. C. 7729). The following are illustrations of this principle, in the Diary of 1744:
In no. 9 "A number of women," and in no. 10 "A handsome woman at a window" represented what he was writing.
In no. 80 we read of "two women, one younger and the other older, whose hands he kissed, not knowing which of the two he His spiritual studies are represented by the one, and his philosophical studies by the other, and he is undecided as to which of the two he should prefer.
Again, by "A woman who owned a large estate," in no. 120, is represented piety and wisdom; and by the queen in no. 201, wisdom.
In no. 5 the Queen represented his Regnum Animale, and his "Sister Hedwig" in no. 71, his OEconomia Regni Animalis.
In no. 148 Swedenborg says that "with overflowing tenderness he, as it were, took leave of a female friend, kissing her, when another appeared at some distance from her. By this is signified that he had finished Part III of the Regnum Animale, treating of the senses and of the operation of the interior faculties, and that he is approaching Part IV. which treats of the brain.
B. An intense interest and delight in spiritual and philosophical thing; in significative dreams is represented by love and affection for, and marriage to, the women by whom these things are represented. Instances of this kind occur in nos. 80, 114, 120, 148, 205, 209. A profanation of spiritual things, i. e. of good and truth, on the other hand, is represented by adultery and whoredom, as may be seen from no. 183.
C. A distaste for particular studies, or their discontinuance, again, is represented by a separation from, or an aversion to, the women by whom these things are represented. Such instances occur in nos. 71 and 148. In no. 126 worldly things are represented by "A fat, red woman," with whom Swedenborg would have nothing to do.
D. A woman "being with child," in no. 171, signifies that Swedenborg "is now engaged in writing and bringing forth what he has undertaken;" while by the two grandsons of Brita Behm, "the two Rosenadlers," in no. 152, are represented two works Swedenborg has produced, viz. the work on the internal senses, and that on the brain; Brita Behm according to Principle II representing Swedenborg himself.
E. In no. 192 the Moravian church is represented by a woman, in accordance with the principle of correspondence, by which the church is represented by the bride and the wife, and the Lord by the bridegroom and the husband (see A. R. 797 and 881). And by Swedenborg's not approaching the woman in no. 192, is meant that he is not accepted in that church.
F. In the "Spiritual Diary," no. 4146, we read as follows: "Sometimes it was shown to me in sleep that spiritual angels conversed with one another about my writings, saying they were not true, or about similar things, when it appeared to me in sleep as if I committed whoredom or even adultery. In this manner was represented in my dreams what they conversed about."
Dreams of this very character are contained in Swedenborg's Private Diary for 1744; but as no one has yet maintained that that Diary was written by him for publication, we are more than justified, we are bound, by respect for the judgment and feelings of the author and the reader, to omit such passages from his dreams. Those we have omitted are six in number, viz. those in nos. 72, 112, 125, 164, 191, and 208. Of another which Swedenborg says "is pure in itself, but for the merely worldly understanding impure," we give a general outline, but omit the particulars.
This, and perhaps some other passages of Swedenborg's Private Diary for 1743 and 1744, which we have not omitted, have been used by Swedenborg's detractors, both in his own country and abroad, as a means of raising a charge of immorality against him--as if a man could be made responsible for his dreams.
It may however be urged that impure dreams are the offspring of an impure mind. This is by no means a necessary conclusion. Dreams faithfully enough represent our natural inclinations, but they are no certain indication of our moral character. Inclinations are inherited, character is acquired. However strong our inclinations may be, we are not accountable for possessing them, but only for using them. The difference between a moral and an immoral man consists in this: one controls his inclinations and appetites, the other indulges them. Yet, however perfectly the inclinations and appetites may be controlled, they are not destroyed. Hence in dreams, when sleep has suspended volition and even deadened the moral sense, the natural inclinations and appetites may act without control and without compunction. And when in these states the inclination and appetites are active, they have a natural tendency to come into act. Experience as well as Scripture teaches us that a hungry man dreams of eating, and a thirsty man of drinking (Is. xxix, 8), and with the other inclinations and appetites it is the same.
Besides being produced by the spontaneous activity of the inclinations, common dreams, as Swedenborg says "result either from the blood or past thoughts" (Adversaria, II, 184). They are thus in a great measure the products of impressions made upon the senses or left upon the brain, and are shaped by the imagination from materials supplied by the memory, which seem then to be the only active powers of the mind. When Dr. Gregory with a vessel of hot water at his feet, dreamt he was walking on mount Etna, and Dr. Reed with a blister on his head dreamt he was scalped by Indians, theirs were but instances of a common experience, that, in dreams, the action of the mind is often both caused and shaped by the condition of the senses. Impressions left upon the brain are still more fruitful sources of dreams.
We have the testimony of the wise king that "A dream cometh through the multitude of business" (Eccl. v. 3). The impressions which great and continued mental exertion leaves upon the brain, give rise to dreams that may or may not have relation to the matter of our waking thoughts.
Now the author has acknowledged that an inclination for women had been his chief passion; and, at the time these dreams occurred, he was deeply engaged in physiological investigations: so that the natural inclination and the "multitude of business" may have been, combined, the exciting causes of these particular dreams. Nor is it inconsistent with the nature of dreams to suppose that the subject of his profound study--the bodily structure both of man and woman--may have had some influence in giving direction and shape to these nocturnal fancies. Yet it is deserving of remark that, while he acknowledges the strength of the sexual inclination, there is no evidence to show that he ever indulged it. Only in his dreams do we hear of him giving way to this natural impulse. These dreams therefore prove that the sexual passion was strong within him, but they prove nothing more. So far as we know they were exceptional experiences. They belong to one particular period of his life, and that one of but brief duration. There is no record, by him who recorded everything, of any such experience at any other time. The very fact of his recording them, and never afterwards destroying them, is in itself a convincing proof of unsuspecting innocence. And when, in addition to these facts, we take into account the whole of his previous and subsequent rife, in which no blemish on this score can be discovered, there is no other legitimate conclusion than that these particular dreams indicate no more than the involuntary and therefore sinless activity of a natural inclination-sinless, except so far as they evince the corruption of our common nature.
So much may he concluded from these dreams as explicable on merely natural principles. Bat there are other considerations to be taken into account in his case. If we admit, or even assume, in accordance with his own statement, not only that these were to him exceptional experiences, but that they were the experiences of an exceptional subject, we may find reason and a use in them that gave them another and higher character. In the transition state in which he now was, he had to pass through the furnace of spiritual affliction, where his Saviour was to sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, to purge away his dress, and refine him as silver is refined, and try him as gold is tried, to make him fit for the sacred office to which he was being called.
It was necessary for him to be purified, even as to inclination, from all existing stains of the world and the flesh, that he might be able to stand in the presence of God, and have fellowship with angels, and receive in his understanding the genuine truths and the internal sense of the Holy Word, and thus be the instrument by whom the Lord was to effect His Second Advent. Now according to his own express and oft repeated teaching, there is no purification without temptation, and there can be no temptation without the agency of evil spirits, who excite into activity, and if possible into act, the evils of our nature. For temptation does not, according to him, consist in outward allurements, but in inward incitements to sin, and to sin against God, and in opposition to our religious principles and convictions. Temptation is therefore a conflict between the good and the evil within us. And as angels call forth and support us through our spiritual principles, and evil spirits excite and assail us through our natural inclinations, temptation is a conflict between angels and demons, whose we shall be. By means of temptation evil is seen and felt as a root of bitterness, poisoning all the streams of life, and tainting even our best acts both of mind and body with its deadly quality. It is remarkable, and singularly in harmony with this doctrine of temptation, that Swedenborg at a subsequent period ascribes these very dreams to the agency of evil spirits. In the "Spiritual Diary" (no. 3680) he says, "This night while I was asleep, some who were above the head attacked me and sought to inflict a mortal injury upon me. This they did after, as they thought, something had been discovered which they believed I had committed is actual life. As soon as this had been discovered, they rushed upon me; for they are of opinion that when they discover anything evil in man, licence is given them to destroy him. This, however, was something which, as I believe, had happened several years ago in my dreams; and I am not sure whether a spirit had not then appropriated me as his own. These spirits were afterwards severely punished." There can be no doubt of these being the very dreams of which we are now speaking, there cord of portions of which we have left untranslated. Some of them appear indeed to be something more than temptations, to be rather of the nature of demoniacal possessions. For although the author has declared that there are no external demoniacal possessions at this day, yet similar states of the church may give rise to somewhat similar conditions of spiritual intercourse, and it may have been necessary that he, who was to describe these states, should know something of them by experience. Their effect was entirely that which, according to his own teaching, temptation is the means of producing in those who overcome. About the same time, therefore, that Swedenborg had such dreams, he also records "my inclination for women, which had been my chief passion, suddenly ceased" (see Document 208, p. 148).
In another entry he says, "I wondered at myself that I was no longer inclined to the sex, as I had been all my life long" (Ibid.).
Should there still be different opinions respecting the state of the man at the time those dreams occurred, if these statements are as true as the confessions are candid, there can be but one opinion as to his state when they had passed away. With his other experiences they disclosed to him the deep corruption of his nature. "I saw all my impurity, and recognised that I was unclean from head to foot" (no. 50). Abhorring himself in dust and ashes, and renouncing all self-righteousness, he threw himself at the feet of his Saviour, craving only His forgiving mercy and saving grace. With such contrition and self-renunciation, it is not surprising he was able to say, "All seemed in a wonderful transcendent manner to approach and conspire to rise up as it were and nestle in infinitude, as a centre where Love itself was" (no. 52).
V. God is represented in the significative dreams of Document 209 under the form of a king, according to this principle of correspondence: "All kings, whoever they are, and of what quality, represent the Lord by the regal office itself which is with them" (A. C. 3670). The Lord is presented first under the form of Charles XII in nos. 13, 102, 116; then under the form of two kings in no. 170; and, finally, in no. 201, under that of the King of France, who as Swedenborg says, represented Christ.
The soul, which is the Lord's inmost dwelling-place in man (see "Intercourse between Soul and Body," no. 8), is represented in no. 152 by the Prime-Minister, Count Horn.104
The angels, or "God's children," in no. 161, are represented by princes.
The Lord's gracious protection is represented in no. 16 by two troops of soldiers marching past Swedenborg's window.
VI. "Man" (vir), according to the Arcana Coelestia, no. 9007 and other places, "corresponds to the intellectual faculty, and thus to truth, and to what pertains to truth; for truth belongs to man's intellectual faculty." Swedenborg in accordance with this principle declares in no. 11, that "A magnificent procession of men" represented experience or experimental truth. "Roving Poles and hussars," in no. 33, he defines as unruly thoughts; and "A yellow man striking a woman," in no. 9, as "our philosophy" i. e. modern philosophy, "striking at what he was writing".
A mixed multitude of men and women, according to no. 55, signifies both "thoughts and affections of the will."
By infants in the language of correspondence is signified innocence (see Arcana Coelestia, no. 5608); this signification of little children occurs in no. 155, and, especially, in no. 190, of Document 209.
VII. Water, in the language of correspondences, signifies truths (A. R. 50), and a river, the understanding of truth and intelligence (A. E. 518); and as the understanding of truth comes to man by the presence of the Holy Spirit, so, in no. 52 of the Diary of 1744, it is declared that the Holy Spirit is represented by water (aqua), and also by a wave (unda). In no. 55 we read that by "A heavy stream of water is signified the power of the Holy Spirit;" and in no. 186, by "muddy water, a turbid understanding."
Fire corresponds to love (H. H. 118), and accordingly we read in no. 191, "a fire of coal burning briskly, signifies the fire of love."
Light corresponds to the truth of faith, and hence to truth in the understanding or in thought (H. H. 118); hence "A reddish light," in no. 68, is defined as "the presence of God's grace in thought."
VIII. The things of intelligence are represented by groves and meadows (A. C. 3220); wherefore we read in no. 144, that by "A noble grove are represented the spiritual things with which man ought to be engaged on Sundays."
By a palace is signified the truth of doctrine (A. C. 4926) or truth rationally understood; in no. 144 there is represented thereby "the plan of Swedenborg's work which points to the 'grove,' and thus to things spiritual."
IX. Precious stones or jewels represent truths in ultimates (S. S. 44), wherefore in no. 5 Swedenborg declares that "jewels have reference to truths."
In A. C. 113 we read that "the good of wisdom or of love is signified or represented by good," and that "nothing is more common in the Word;" and in the Diary of 1744, in no. 67, that "Gold means that which is good and well-pleasing to God," and in no. 68 that by "making gold is meant really to do what is good and to execute it with God's grace, and in the faith granted by God."
X. By bread in the language of correspondence is meant spiritual bread or good (A. C. 680), and likewise by manna, (A. C. 8464); hence in no. 12 of Document 209 the author declares that "two leaves of bread which he received signify the Holy Supper;" and, in no. 139, that "the same is signified by manna." As all illustration in truth is received from the Lord by means of good which is represented by bread (see A. C. 3094), therefore we read in no. 195 that by "the breed presented to Swedenborg on a plate is signified that the Lord will instruct him."
XI. By birds are represented "the things of the understanding, and also thoughts, and consequently those things which are thence, thus in a genuine sense truths of every kind, and in an opposite sense falsities" (A. C. 5149), and in no. 132 of Swedenborg's Private Diary we read that by "birds which came flying towards him, and which he struck with a knife, so that they died, are signified wild thoughts which he killed with the help of the Spirit."
By dragons are signified reasonings from the lusts of evil (A. C. 7293), and in the Private Diary no. 199 we read that they signify "spurious loves, but which do not appear as dragons, until their wings are discovered," i. e. until the falsities which these spurious loves hatch are seen.
XII. "In the Word the life of love, or what is the same the will, is called the heart" (A. C. 9050), and in no. 189 of the Diary for 1744 we read, "I saw also in a vision a heart filled with blood, by which is meant love."
The feet signify what is natural (A. C. 2162), wherefore some one "not being able to get along with the foot," is explained in no. 8 thus, that "natural reason cannot agree with spiritual reason."
By the sole of the foot is represented the ultimate of the natural, or the sensual mind (A. C. 7729), where man's evils mainly reside; by "the soles of the feet being white" is, therefore, represented in no. 166, Document 209, that "the sins are forgiven."
In A. C. 5323 we read, "The bending of the knees is a representative sign of adoration; for if adoration flows from genuine humility, then there is a failing of spirits, and hence a giving way of the joints where the spiritual is conjoined with the natural, and thus where the knees are; for what is below the knees corresponds to what is natural, and what is above to what is spiritual." This serves as an explanation of no. 63 (5) where we read, "Afterwards my knees moved involuntarily, which perhaps signifies that I have become somewhat humble."
XIII. In A. C. 3164, we read that "vessels of silver signify matters of knowledge or scientifics, for these are the recipients of truth;" and in no. 31 of the Private Diary, that "by Swedenborg's taking two vases of silver with him, is meant that he has acquired much knowledge in spiritual things."
The "wind in wings" in a genuine sense means "thinking from spiritual truths," in an opposite sense "reasoning from fallacies" (A. E. 283); in no. 66 Swedenborg states that the "sails of a wind-mill" represent his thoughts.
In A. C. 5023 we read, "A house in the internal sense is the man himself or his mind;"
such also is the interpretation given by Swedenborg of a house in no. 15 of his Private Diary, where we read, "Two persons entered into a house which although built was not yet furnished; they went round, but were not favourably disposed. This signified that I had invited the Highest to me, into an unprepared and untidy hut, which was found to be unbecoming.
From all this it appears that Swedenborg's interpretation of his dreams in 1744 is based on the principle of correspondence; although his knowledge of correspondences in 1744 was by no means as accurate as it became after he was fully introduced as to his spirit into the spiritual world in 1745. Hence it appears that on the score of the interpretation given by him to these dreams there is no rational ground why we should doubt their authenticity.
NOTE 162.
SWEDENBORG'S SPIRITUAL STATE IN 1743 AND 1744.
I. A summary view of his spiritual state during the years that immediately preceded the full opening of his spiritual sight in 1745, was given by Swedenborg in the "Spiritual Diary" no. 2951, which is quoted verbatim in the Introduction to Document 208, pp. 146 and 146, and the contents of which we reproduce here in a tabular form with letters for convenient reference:
A. Before his mind was opened, so that he could converse with spirits, he had dreams during several years, by which he was informed concerning the things on which he was writing.
B. He experienced changes of state while writing, and there was a certain extraordinary light in the things written.
C. Afterwards he had visions with closed eyes, and light was given him in a miraculous manner.
D. Spirits [entered by influx] in a sensible manner, indeed the sensation was as manifest as if it had been received by the bodily senses.
E. Often he was infested in various ways by evil spirits, when he was in temptations.
F. When writing anything that the spirits did not like, he was almost possessed by them, so as to feel as it sere a tremor or shiver.
G. Fiery lights were seen by him.
Let us now see how his account in the "Spiritual Diary" compares with his spiritual experience as recorded in his Private Diary for the years 1743 and 1744. We will take up these points seriatim.
A. Swedenborg had dreams, during several years, by which he was informed concerning the things on which he was writing. A parallel statement to this Swedenborg made in 1746 in his Adversaria, Vol. II, no. 183, (see Introduction to Document 208, p. 146) where he says, "At first I had dreams during a number of years, when I learned something of their real signification."
By these words he confirms in a general way the fact of his having had significative dreams during the years 1743 and 1744, and he thus testifies in a general way as to the correctness of his Private Diary for 1743 and 1744, which consists in a great measure of such significative dreams.
"By these dreams," he says further, "I was informed concerning the things on which I was writing." On examining the contents of his Private Diary for 1744 we find no less than twelve dreams and visions, by which Swedenborg was informed "concerning the things on which he was writing;" compare Document 209, nos. 1, 5, 6, 63, 77, 91, 147, 148, 162, 165, 150, 175, 182, the contents of which will be found more fully discussed in Note 164.
Again, that he learned the signification of these dreams only "in part," he declares repeatedly; as, for instance, in no. 116, where he says, "This signifies that God speaks with me and that I comprehend only the least portion of it; because it is in representations, of which I understand as yet very little."
B. Swedenborg experienced changes of state while writing, and there was an extraordinary light in the things written.
In Document 209, no. 171 we read, "This means probably that there I am engaged now in writing and in bringing forth what I have undertaken; for during the whole day I found myself in a full state of illustration in the matters which I have in hand."
Again, "This signifies that my head is being cleared, and that it is really being cleansed of all that would obstruct these thoughts, as was also the case the last time; for it gave me penetration, especially whilst writing. This was also represented to me now, in that I appeared to write a fine hand (no. 207).
To this may be added an experience recorded by Swedenborg in the Adversaria, Vol. II, no. 183, where he says: "I had revelations, when the very letters appeared written before my eyes, and were read to me." Such an instance is recorded in no. 65 of his Private Diary for l744, where we read, "I perceived that this is so, as had also been represented to me by some sort of luminous spiritual writing."
C. Afterwards Swedenborg had visions with closed eyes.
In no. 102 we read, "Afterwards I was in a vision, which is neither a state of sleep, nor of wakefulness, nor of ecstasy;" and in no 147, "This took place in a vision, when I was neither awake [in the usual manner], nor asleep; but I had all my thoughts collected. The internal man separated from the external felt all this."
D. Spirits entered by influx in a sensible manner, indeed the sensation was as manifest as if it had been received by the bodily senses.
In no. 179 we read, "I have noticed several times that there are various kinds of spirits. The one Spirit, which is that of Christ, is the only one that has all blessedness with it; by the other spirits man is enticed a thousand ways to follow them; but woe to those who do so. Another time Korah and Dathan occurred to me who brought strange fire to the altar, and could not offer it; such is the case when a different fire is introduced than that which comes from Christ. I saw also something like a fire coming to me. It is necessary therefore that a distinction should be made between spirits; which, however, cannot be done except through Christ Himself and His Spirit."
The mode in which Swedenborg noticed the approach of spirits in 1744, is described by him in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 192, thus: "For nearly three years [he writes on this August 31, 1747], I was allowed to perceive and notice the operation of spirits not by a sort of internal sight, but by a sensation which is associated with a sort of obscure sight, whereby I noticed their presence which was various, their approach and departure, besides many other things."
E. Often Swedenborg was infested in various ways by evil spirits, when he was in temptations.
Almost the whole of the Diary of 1744 is a continuous record of temptations; of these we shall single out some of the most prominent instances:
"Easter was on the 5th of April, when I went to the Lord's table. Temptation still continued, mostly in the afternoon till six o'clock; but it assumed no definite form. It was an anxiety felt at being condemned and in hell; but in this feeling the hope given by the Holy Spirit, according to Paul's epistle to the Romans v, 5 remained strong. The Evil One had power given him to disturb my inmost mind by various thoughts *** The temptation came on in the afternoon, in an entirely different manner, but strongly; for I was assured that my sins were forgiven, and still I could not govern my fugitive thoughts, so as to restrain some expressions against my better understanding;
I was, by permission, under the influence of the Evil One. The temptation was assuaged by prayer and God's Word; faith was there in its entirety, but confidence and love seemed to be gone" (no. 19).
"I was in a temptation, where thoughts invaded me which I could not control; nay, they poured in so powerfully, that all my other thoughts were kept under, and full liberty was given them to resist the power of the Spirit, which leads in a different direction; the infestation was, indeed, so strong that unless God's grace had been stronger, I must either have succumbed, or become mad.
During that time I could not direct my thoughts to the contemplation of Christ" (no. 34).
"This last temptation went to the innermost, and to resist it I received a stronger evidence of the Spirit; for at times I broke out into a perspiration" (no. 39).
"Whilst I was in the first struggle, I called on Jesus for help, and it ceased. I also folded my hands under my head, and then it did not come a second time. I was, nevertheless, in a tremor when I awoke, and heard now and then a dull sound; but I do not know whence" (no. 57).
"During the whole day I was in conflicting thought, which tried to destroy that which was of the Spirit by abusive language. I found therefore that the temptation was very strong. By the grace of the Spirit I was led to fix my thoughts on a piece of wood or a tree, and then on the cross of Christ, and on the crucified Christ; whenever I did so the other thoughts fell down flat, as of their own accord. I bore down this thought so strongly upon the other, that it seemed to me I might crush the tempter with the cross, and drive him away; when I was relieved for a time" (no. 73).
"Afterwards I dreamt how the Evil One led me into various deep places, and bound me. I cannot remember it all. Being thus tied, I was cast into hell" (no. 88).
"I was this day at intervals in a state of interior anxiety, and at times in a state of, despair; still I was assured of the forgiveness of sins. In consequence of this a cold sweat sometimes broke out upon me until 10 o'clock, when with God's help I fell asleep" (no. 91).
"This day I was in severest temptation, so that whenever I thought of Jesus Christ immediately ungodly thoughts pressed in, which I could not control as I wished. I beat myself. Yet I can affirm, that I never was of better courage than to-day, and that I was not in the least faint-hearted and pained as on previous days, although the temptation was most severe," &c. (no. 104).
F. When writing anything that the spirits did not like, Swedenborg was almost possessed by them, so as to feel as it were a tremor or shiver.
In the Diary of 1744 two kinds of tremors or shivers are described by Swedenborg. One kind came over him when he was in a state of temptation, and under the influence of evil spirits; and the other kind when the Holy Spirit or the Lord Jesus Christ was present with him.
(a) Concerning the former kind of tremors we read: "I went to bed at nine o'clock; but the temptation, accompanied by trembling, continued until half-past ten" (no. 19). Again, "I came into a state of doubt whether I should not direct my journey homewards; a crowd of involved reasons [then] came, and my body was seized with a tremor, (no. 110). Further, "Before I fell asleep to-day, I was deeply engaged in my thoughts about the things on which I am writing. 'Hold your tongue,' I was told, 'or I shall slay you;' and I saw some one sitting on a piece of ice. I was frightened. I then restrained my thoughts, and one of the usual tremors came over me" (no. 174).
The mode in which such tremors were caused by evil spirits Swedenborg describes in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 1934, in the following manner: "During some night this month evil spirits tried to terrify me from malice, while I was in bed; they occupied the joints of the whole body with a tremor, so that the whole body trembled. This I had also experienced before, viz., that the evil spirits invaded all joints and fibres, and inflicted thus a sensible tremor *** Sometimes I experienced this to such a degree that if any other had experienced it, he would have thought that he was possessed by demons. From A. C. 3219, we learn that such tremors sometimes came over him when spirits who were not bad suddenly entered into him; he says there, "Lo! some spirits fell into me with such vehemence, that they causes a tremor in my nerves and bones, so that I thought that, as formerly sometimes, some evil spirits had invaded me with a desire of destroying me; but it was not so.
(b) Instances of a holy tremor or thrill are described by Swedenborg in nos. 27, 147, and 162 of Document 209.
G. Fiery lights were seen by Swedenborg.
The only instance of this kind mentioned in the Diary of 1744 is contained in no. 65, and was quoted under the head of B. Other instances of this phenomenon, as recorded by him, will be found in the footnote on p. 145.
II. In the "Spiritual Diary, no. 219, Swedenborg makes the following statement, under date of October 24, 1747:
"For several years already it was granted me to feel heavenly delights manifestly in various ways; and they are so many and of such various kinds, that they cannot be described at all. Had I tried to describe them, they could not have been believed and understood at all by men."
In his Private Diary for 1744 he makes many descriptions of such states of heavenly delight; of these we select the following:
"Both in my mind and body I had a sensation of an indescribable delight, that, had it been more intense, the body would have been, as it were, dissolved in pure bliss" (no. 25).
"This night .... a feeling of supreme bliss was shed over my whole body, and indeed for a long time...immediately before I fell asleep, and after I awoke for a half, nay, for a whole hour ... I saw and perceived that the Supreme Love was the source of that inmost and real feeling of gladness; and that in proportion as I could be in that Love, I was in a state of bliss; but as soon as I came into another love, which did not centre in that Supreme Love, I was no longer in that state of gladness" (no. 52).
"The Spirit came with its heavenly and almost ecstatic life in so high a degree, and permitted me, as it were, to rise higher and higher in it, that if I had ascended still higher, I should have been dissolved in this real life of joy" (no. 78).
"I was interiorly tranquil and peaceful, being contented with the Lord's dispensation; the whole time also I felt the strong influence of the Holy Spirit, and the whole body was filled with a delight in the heavenly kingdom upon earth" (no. 139).
"The internal state of delight continued so strong in the mornings, evenings, and during the day, especially when I was by myself alone, without company, that it may be compared to heavenly joy on earth. In this state I hope to continue, so long as by our Lord's grace alone I walk in pure paths and have right intentions; for as soon as I turn aside, and try to find my joy in worldly things, this state of delight ceases" (no. 141).
III. In the "Spiritual Diary," no. 3904, we read 89 follows: "Some one who during his life had been known to me among those of his time, and who more than others knew what faith and the knowledges of faith were, came to me and said, that he now knew nothing, but that he was in such an obscure state that he scarcely knew what truth was. I knew that he had been among those who had not only known above others the knowledges of faith, but also had defended them with zeal; and, nevertheless, he now said that he was in such an obscure state, that he knew nothing.
To him it was granted me to say, that he was reduced to this state of obscurity or ignorance, not because he did not know what truth is, for that he knew above others, but because in the other life knowledges are confirmed, so that they become the truths of faith; and when the life of him who has these knowledges is repugnant to them, it follows that he knows nothing, and is in obscurity. For if any one is in the light of knowledges, and if his life is repugnant to them, then he does not love the things confirming the knowledges of faith against his life, but he rather loves the things confirming his life against the knowledges; and when there is such an antagonism, it follows that he is in obscurity, and in ignorance. Into such a state I also was reduced, before it was granted to me to speak with spirits. I was allowed to comfort him by this consideration, that into this state those are first reduced who are in the knowledges of the truth of faith, and whose life does not agree therewith, which is a species of vastation; and that then the Lord first inseminates truths, and the light of truth begins gradually to shine forth from this obscure or dark state."
From this passage we learn that "before it was granted Swedenborg to speak with spirits, he was reduced into a state of ignorance." This is corroborated by the following passages from the Diary of 1744.
In no. 192 Swedenborg says, "I have no knowledge about religion, but have lost all." And again in no. 194, "I discovered that I am in such a state that I know nothing on this subject [i. e. religion]."
In no. 195 he says: "This is a prediction that the Lord Himself will instruct me, as soon as I have arrived in that state in which I shall know nothing, and in which all my preconceived notions will be removed from me; which is the first state of learning: or in other words, that I must first become a child, and that then I shall be able to be nurtured up in knowledge, as is the case with me now.
IV. In a letter addressed to Dr. Beyer,25 dated Feb., 1767 (Document 234, p. 260), Swedenborg says as follows, "You desire to know my opinion respecting the writings of Böhme and L[aw] (see p. 498): I have never read them, and I was forbidden to read authors on dogmatic and systematic theology, before heaven was opened to me; because unfounded opinions and fictions might have easily insinuated themselves thereby, which afterwards could only have been removed with difficulty."
The same statement Swedenborg makes in the Diary of 1744, where he says in no. 121: "It was represented to me in a certain manner that I was not to pollute myself by reading other books treating on theology and similar subjects; because all this I have from the Word of God and the Holy Spirit."
And again he says in no. 203: "By this is signified that I must not take of articles manufactured by others, but must use my own."
NOTE 163.
CALENDAR OF SWEDENBORG'S WHEREABOUTS IN 1743 AND 1744.
The following dates are extracted from his Diary for 1743 and 1744:
1743.
July 21. He left Stockholm (Document 207).
August 12. He arrived in Hamburg (do.)
August 20. He left Bremen (do.)
September 2 old style, 13 new style. He drew 500 florins from
Messrs. Muillman and Sons [in Amsterdam]* (Document 134).
* As Swedenborg's banker at the Hague was Balair (see Document 184), it seems most probable that Messrs. Muillman and Co. mentioned in Document 134 were his bankers at Amsterdam; and from the fact that in drawing money from that firm on November 12 Swedenborg used the term "finally" (omsider), it would seem as if this was the last sum of money which he drew in Amsterdam, before leaving for the Hague. From this again it would follow that the date 11 in Document 208, where Swedenborg speaks of his "Arriving at the Hague," means A[December] 11," because this necessarily must have been subsequently to November 12, when be drew the "last" sum of money from Messrs. Muillman & Sons.
November 12. He drew "finally" (omsider) 500 florins from Messrs. Muillman and Sons (Document 134).
[December] 11. He speaks of having arrived at the Hague (Document 208).
1744.
January 20. Received 500 florins by draft on Balair at the Hague (Document 134).
April 16. He was with Ambassador Preis at the Hague (Document 209, no. 85).
April 23. He was at Leyden on a short trip to Amsterdam (do., no. 113).
April 24. At Amsterdam (do., no. 116).
April 25. He returned to the Hague (do., no. 118).
May 13 new style. He left the Hague on his journey to England (do., no. 132).
May 4 old style [16, new style]. He arrived at Harwich in England (do., no. 133).
May 5 old style [17, new style]. He arrived in London (do., no. 137).
May 19. In London (Document 209, no. 139).
May 30. He took out in London L15 15 (Document 134).
July 23. Received from John Spieker ,60 (do.)
October 11. Received ,5 5 (do.)
December 21. Received from Mr. Mackei in London ,60 (do.)
If now we look for a confirmation of these dates, outside of the Private Diary for 1743 and 1744, we find from Document 164, D, that Swedenborg's leave of absence was granted on June 30, 1743, and that he continued to attend the meetings of the College of Mines until July 20; so that it is quite possible he left Stockholm on July 21, as is reported in Document 207, even though the Secretary of the College of Mines does not seem to have been aware of his having left town until July 25.
From Stockholm he went to the Hague, for there in 1744 were published Vols. I and II of his Regnum Animale.
The next date is furnished by the Royal Librarian Gjörwell, who in his "Conversation with Swedenborg" (Document 251, p. 404) reports that Swedenborg said to him, the "Lord revealed Himself to me in May, 1744, while I was in London." According to the Private Diary, no. 137, Swedenborg arrived in London from the Hague on May 5, old style, 1744; so that there is no discrepancy between the two dates. He certainly does not record in his Private Diary the Lord's appearance to him in London during the month of May; but as he made only one entry in his Diary during the month of May, after his arrival in London, namely, May 20, it is quite possible that what he related to Gjörwell may have happened on one of the other days in that month.
The next date me find is in the Adversaria, I, no. 1003, where we read: "From the middle of April, 1745, I was at the same time in heaven and with my friends on earth, with the exception of one month, which fell out while I was engaged in my journey to Sweden, where I arrived August 19, old style."
That in the middle of April, 1745, Swedenborg was in London, appears from Note 21, where it is shown that a circumstance accompanying the full opening of his spiritual sight in London, as described in Document 5, no. 15, took place in the middle of April, 1745. "From that day, says Swedenborg in the same place, "I gave up the study of all worldly science, and laboured in spiritual things, as the Lord commanded me to write."
Between May, 1744, and April, 1745, were printed Vol. III of the Regnum Animale, and Parts I and II of "The Worship and Love of God;" both of which publications are incomplete, and on their title-pages bear the imprint, London, 1745.
From all this, therefore, it follows clearly that the chronological dates given in the "Private Diary of 1743 and 1744 A agree fully with the collateral dates that exist of Swedenborg's life at that time.
NOTE 164.
SWEDENBORG'S STUDIES IN 1743 AND 1744.
In order to bring this subject clearly before our readers we propose to subjoin here a short resume of what has been proved in respect to Swedenborg's studies in 1743 and 1744, in Document 313.
I. In no 71, p. 937, we learn that when Swedenborg left Sweden in 1743 the MS. of the Regnum Animale "was so far completed, that after collecting some necessary information in the libraries abroad, he would be able to publish it at once." From Note 163 it appears that after arriving in Holland towards the close of August, 1743, he spent the months of September, October, and November in Amsterdam, and perhaps also in the neighbouring university of Leyden, in order "to collect in the libraries there some necessary information;" and in December he arrived at the Hague to superintend the printing of that work. The original plan of this work according to which it would fill four stout volumes of 500 sheets is contained in no. 56, A, p. 921.
II. After arriving in Holland Swedenborg enlarged the plan of the Regnum Animale by embodying with it the substance of his OEconomia, etc., and he broke up the original four volumes into seventeen parts. A list of these seventeen parts is given in no. 71, p. 937.
III. The first two parts, viz., those treating of the viscera of the abdomen and of the thorax, were published in agreement with the original programme at the Hague; yet in comparing the contents of the published parts with those given in the prospectus on p. 349 of Vol. VI of the Photo-lithographed MS. of Swedenborg, two entirely new chapters "on the glands in general," and "on the diaphragm," are found to have been added, together with the epilogues at the end of the first and of the second parts; the arrangement also of some of the chapters is found changed; so that it becomes very evident that Swedenborg on arriving in Holland submitted to a most careful revision those parts of the Regnum Animale which were published there.
IV. If now we turn to the Diary for 1744 (Document 209, no. 1) we find that on March 25 Swedenborg, in his revision of the MS. of Part I, had arrived at no. 272, Chapter XIII, where among other things he treats of the state of the lungs in the embryo in the uterus On the same day, we further read (no. 5), "he was instructed to write and commence the epilogue of the second [first?] volume." This epilogue closes Vol. I (p. 424 of Latin Edition, and p. 510 of English Edition). In his revision of Part I he therefore skipped over chapters XIV, XV, and XVI, and undertook at once the preparation of the epilogue with which Part I closes. That these chapters were not revised by him, and that he had them printed from the original MS, which he had brought from Sweden, appears from the fact that in chapter XIV the irregularity in the numbering of the paragraphs begins, to which we have called attention in Document 313, no. 71, p. 937.
On the following day, March 26 (no. 6), we already find him looking forward to the preparation for the press of Part II which treats of the lungs, and the organs leading thereto and connected therewith; for he was then thinking of "the pulmonary artery, as being the key to the lungs and consequently to the motion of the whole body."
On April 12 (Document 209, no. 63), in the revision of Part II, he had arrived at Chapter VI, where (p. 225 of the Latin Edition, and p. 290 of the English Edition) the function of the thymus gland and of the succenturiate kidneys is discussed, and where (no. III) almost the identical words are used which occur in the Diary for 1744 (no. 63).
On April 15 (Document 209, no. 77) Swedenborg was engaged in preparing for the press the new chapter on the diaphragm where (pp. 238 to 250 of Latin Edition, and pp. 310 to 323 in the English edition) the muscles in general are treated of; for on that day, as appears from the Diary for 1744 (no. 77), he "was to inform himself about the muscles and explore them."
On April 16 (Document 209, nos. 80 and 81) we find him already engaged on the epilogue to Part II, where (pp. 269 to 285 of the Latin Edition, and pp. 346 to 366 of the English Edition) he "returns to the things of the memory and imagination, and to the upper and lower faculties," i. e. where he leaves the things of the body and approaches again those of the mind and of the soul.
V. After finishing Part II, according to the programme laid down in the beginning of Part I, he ought to have taken up Part III which was to treat of "the heart, the arteries, the veins, and the blood;" or as this subject had been fully discussed by him in Part I of the OEconomia Regni Animalis, published in 1740, he ought to have passed to Parts IV and V, which were to treat of "the genital organs of males and females, and the formation of the embryo in the uterus," but instead of doing so he skipped over Parts III, IV, and V, and took up at once Part VI of his programme, which was to treat of "the organs of the external senses." His reasons for doing so he states in full in the prologue to no. 73, p. 941, to which we refer the reader.
VI. From the beginning of May to the beginning of July, 1744, we accordingly find Swedenborg busily engaged on what promises to be Part III of the "New Series" of the Regnum Animale (see Document 313, no. 77, p. 944). During the whole of this time he made only a few entries in his "Private Diary for 1744;" but, on the other hand, we find a considerable number of allusions to dreams, visions, and supernatural admonitions in the text of Codex 58, (see Document 310, p. 859), which describes the contents of no. 73, p. 941, and of so. 76, p. 943, in Document 313, to which we refer the reader for further particulars.
A. On p. 14 of Codex 58 we read in reference to the chapter on "Sense in General," as follows, "This matter to p. 19 ought not to come first, but the parts investigated by the analytic method; this and several other things belong to the Epilogue at the end; I have been thus informed in a dream" (Detta mne til 19, kommer ingalunda frut, ty delar emot viam analyticam, utan detta med mehra til Epilogo eller eftert; jag var so twarnad i drm." Compare the "Critical Notes" of Dr. Im. Tafel in the Appendix, p. 236 of his edition of the Regnum Animale, Vol. IV (no. 73 of Document 313). The following four pages are also marked thus: "Afterwards in the Epilogue" (eftert i Epilogo).
13. On p. 84 (Dr. Im. Tafel's edition, p. 82) we find, "It is to be observed that in agreement with a nocturnal admonition (secundum admonitionem noct.) I must refer to my philosophical Principia, and consider the light, heavy, and active properties which are there described in sundry places; I was told that thus it would be granted to me to fly wherever I please."
C. On p. 144 (Dr. Im. Tafel's edition, p. 164) we read, "But these things are too deep, and have to be explained by a number of other things, wherefore a mere outline of them is given here. These things, however, are still obscure, and perhaps not true. I saw a fly. It went away, and I retraced my steps. The subject of truths, in accordance with admonitions, was taken up again. The fly, as I believe, went away against my wish, and I could scarcely bear it."
D. On p. 167 (Dr. Im. Tafel's edition, p. 194) we find written, "This was represented to me by gold which I was carrying; and which, perhaps not very easily, opened the door within which a large quantity of gold was lying on a table; this, namely [the gold], would open for me the approach to spiritual things."
VII. On pp. 174, 175 and 187 of Codex 58 we find a direct reference to one of the dreams recorded in the Diary for 1744. On p. 174 (Dr. Im. Tafel's edition, p. 202) Swedenborg says, "For this reason those wonderful things happened to me in the sight between the first and second of July" (Propter hc accidebant mihi mirabilia ista nocte inter 1 et 2 Juli). On p. l75, in a passage printed by Dr. Im. Tafel in his preface to Part VI, Section 2, (no. 69, Part II, of Document 313) Swedenborg says, "The things which I wrote here were foretold to me in a wonderful manner; see the dream, July 1 X 2. I wrote this on July 2 A (Hc quae scripsi praenuntiata mihi sunt mirabiliter, vide somn. Jul 1 X 2; scripsi Juli 2). The reader will notice that Swedenborg uses here the identical mark, viz. X, to indicate the night between two days which is also used in the Diary for 1744. A third allusion to this dream is made on p. 187 (Dr. Im. Tafel's edition, p. 215), ASee the dream between July 1 and 2" (Vide somnium 1-2 Juli). The dream in question is contained in Document 209, no. 147.
VIII. In a part of Codex 58, not published by Dr. Im. Tafel, (no. 76 of Document 313), we find the following allusions to spiritual experiences:
A. On p. 202 (Swedenborg MSS., Vol. VI, p. 62) we read: "There is to be premised the experimental knowledge contained in Chapter VII, p. LXXIII of the first cast (projectione) of the work [no. 56, A, of Document 313, photo-lithographed edition, p. 134 to p. 1401, also perhaps what has been said concerning the motion of the brain in Chapter I [no. 56, A, Document 313, photo-lithographed edition, pp. 6 to 17]; likewise what has been said concerning the cortical and medullary substances generally in other places, both in the things written and published. It is to be observed that I have been [thus] commanded" (Obs: jussus sum).
B. On p. 223 (Vol. III, photo-lithographed edition, p. 53) we find, "It is to be observed that these things are not to be inserted in the chapter or thesis; for this would be premature; but they are to be kept in reserve; thus it seems to me I have been commanded" (ita videor jussus). See also footnote on p. 145.
IX. If now we turn to the Diary of 1744 (Document 209), we find there the following references to the contents of Codex 58 (nos. 73 and 76 of Document 313).
A. In no. 147 the following explanation of the memorable dream of July 1 X 2 is given: "From what follows and from other indications I perceived that this dream signified this: that I shall discover the truths about internal sensations, but on the back, and obscurely as to their front." The subject discussed in Codex 58, in all those places where reference is made to this dream, is "internal sensation."
B. On July 4 (no. 148) we read in the Diary for 1744, "This signifies that I have now finished writing on the senses in general and the operation of the interior faculties; which subject in the form in which I have sketched it cannot be comprehended; and that now I approach the following part which treats on the brain." From this it seems that on July 4 Swedenborg finished his rough draught of Part III of the Regnum Animale, which treats of the senses in general and the operation of the intellect. In the form in which he then wrote it, but "in which it cannot be comprehended," it fills pages 1 to 197 of Codex 58. See Document 313, no. 73, and also Document 310, Codex 58.
C. On August 1 (no. 162) Swedenborg began writing out Part III of the "New Series" of the Regnum Animale for the press (see Document 313, no. 77, p. 944), as appears from the following explanation: "This signifies that I was led to my work about the senses, which I began writing [i. e. preparing for the press] to-day; and that I did not wish to be drawn away thereby from that which is more important." And in no. 163, on the same day, we read: "This signifies the work upon which I have now entered; the last was upon the Brain. I find by this that; I shall have God's assistance in it; for I believe that He will aid me in it."
D. On August 9 he had advanced as far as p. 26 of the printed Latin Edition (no. 77); for in no. 165 he says, "This means that I had not properly arranged and carried out the subject of the corpus reticulare Malpighii;" this subject is treated by him on pp. 21 to 26 of Part III (nos. 495 to 499, English edition).
E. On September 16 Swedenborg had come as far as p. 144 of the printed Latin edition (no. 77); for in no. 170 he says under the above date, "This signifies that what I had written was well-pleasing; it was the last of the first chapter on the sense of touch." The last portion of this chapter which treats of the "Use of Touch," extends from p. 130 to p. 144 of the Latin edition, and from p. 531 to p. 547 of the English Edition.
F. In no. 175, Swedenborg alludes to his dissertation on "Organic Forms generally," which is contained in the first chapter on the sense of touch; he says "It occurred to me in my thoughts whether it was not most important to be with God and to live so, that He would look upon what I had finished writing about Organic Forms generally, and especially the conclusion."
In the conclusion of this dissertation Swedenborg shows how good and truth are appropriated by man, and evil and falsity rejected.
X. On October 9 (no. 191), while Swedenborg, it seems, was still engaged in preparing Part III of the Regnum Animale for the press, he felt very strongly inclined to abandon the whole of that work; yet he was induced to go on with the printing of it.
On October 27 he finally gave up his work on the Regnum Animale, and never resumed it. Under that date he writes in no. 202, "It was foretold to me that the twenty-seventh of October would come again, when I undertook the "Worship and Love of God."
The printed copies both of Part III of the "Regnum Animale," and of the "Worship and Love of God," bear the imprint of 1745; yet from the above minute account of the composition of Part III, it is evident that the whole of it, as far as it is printed, was prepared by the Author in the latter part of 1744.
NOTE 165.
SWEDENBORG'S THEOLOGY IN 1743 AND 1744.
Swedenborg's theological ideas in the beginning were derived from the church in which he was born and educated; and even after these ideas had undergone a considerable change, he still adhered to the doctrinal phraseology which was current at his time. As late as 1745 and 1746 we thus find in his work known as the Adversaria the very same phrases which occur in almost all theological treatises of his own day, and in many of those of the present time. The same we shall find to be the case in the Diary for 1744
I. The Divine Trinity. We read in the Adversaria, Vol. I, p. 6,. "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.--From the use of the expression 'let us make' in the plural number, it appears that all the persons of the Divinity, which were three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, concurred in the work of creation." Again we read in the same Volume, no. 613, p. 413, "When the Only begotten Son of God had before His eyes the destruction of the whole human race, and saw most clearly in His own light that this destruction was imminent, out of pure love, and out of pure mercy and grace He offered Himself to Jehovah the Father, as a sacrifice for the universal human race;
and in order to deliver man from eternal damnation and to vindicate (vindicaret) him again for heaven, he asked for permission to receive in Himself all their guilt and all their transgressions. His very love towards the human race, which, on account of its being Divine, was an infinite, pure love, impelled the Messiah to do so. If He had resisted that love, He would have revisited Himself; for He is Love Itself, from which, as from a fountain, all love, the source of all concord, unanimity, conjunction, felicity, and rest, flows and is derived. From pure love flows pure mercy, for this is inherent in the love for those who are miserable. He therefore received permission from Jehovah the Father, by His prayers, that He in the place of the human race should suffer the punishments of justice, [decreed by] the Father."
We see from these two passages that Swedenborg as late as 1745 spoke of the "three persons of the Divinity," and that he regarded the "Son" as in a certain sense distinct from the "Father." That he had then a similar idea in respect to the "Holy Spirit," appears from the "Spiritual Diary," no. 2938, where he says: "As long as I was in such a persuasion that the Holy Spirit is the third person, and that there were holy spirits [i. e. angels] from eternity, when I then said the least word against certain spirits, they were incensed to such a degree and infused such a fear into me that I scarcely dared to think about the Holy Spirit; for there were then many who believed themselves to be the Holy Spirit.:
As Swedenborg used such language in respect to the Divine Trinity in 1745, it is not surprising that we should meet in the Diary for 1744 with the following expressions:
"This is my consolation, which may God for the sake of Jesus Christ strengthen" (no. 90).
"Our Lord has given me this strong faith and confidence that He helps me for the sake of Jesus Christ and according to His own promise" (no. 104).
"God alone through Christ has helped me in this danger" (no. 180).
"The only love is to God and Jesus Christ" (no. 183).
"When man puts his trust entirely in God and Christ, and not in himself" (no. 187).
"The Holy Spirit desired to lead me to Jesus, and present me to Him, as a work that had been prepared by Him" (no. 29).
Although Swedenborg in the above passages speaks of three Divine persons, and regarded them to a certain extent as distinct from one another, he, nevertheless, did not entertain concerning them the idea of three Gods; but he looked upon them as manifestations of the one and only God.
This appears manifestly from the following statements taken from the Adversaria: "That the Creator of all or the Father, His Only-begotten or the Son, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from both are one, and all taken together are God, appears most clearly from Genesis i, 26, where these words occur. 'And God said, Let us make man in our own image,' &c., and where the words 'let us make' are spoken by one" (Vol. I, no. 26, p. 41). And again, in no. 80, he says, "God Himself declares by mouth and by writing in Genesis iii, 22, where He speaks of Himself as One, and at the same time as several, that Jehovah God is one is Essence, but threefold in respect to persons, viz., that there is the Father of all of whom is predicated creation, His Only-begotten or the Son, from whom is salvation, and the Holy Spirit, from whom is sanctification." The function of each of the three he defines in no. 4, p. 27, thus: "Creation itself which is the foresight and providence of all things is the Divine Mind, and thus the representation, to all eternity, of the ends of the universe with the means, is attributed to God the Father; the Word, however, by which creation is made or effected, is ascribed to the second person of the Divinity or to His Only-begotten Son; and to the Holy Spirit the efficient cause, and hence those decrees which after being spoken [by the Word] Were also executed." And in no. 17, p. 37, he states, that "the universe with its hosts was created by God the Father, but effected and produced by His Son or the Word, and the Holy Spirit."
II. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The doctrine concerning the Son of God, as entertained by Swedenborg in 1744, before his fall illustration, is stated in his "Worship and Love of God" (written in the latter part of 1744) is these words: "In order that our Supreme [Ruler] from His most holy sanctuary and inmost heaven, and consequently from His throne, might govern the universe, at His beckoning and good pleasure, as in the first, so also in the last things of nature, and that He might thus organize the kingdom of heaven, He begat from eternity or before the creation of the world the Firstborn of all the living, His Only Love, by whom spiritual and corporeal, celestial and natural, that is living and inanimate objects, might be united and conjoined with Himself. For nothing conspires harmoniously in one, nor lives and is acted upon continually by one spirit, nor does it struggle on towards one end, without lore, but it is discordant and falls to pieces. He, [the Only begotten,] therefore, was born for the sake of a union and mediation between the higher and lower things, or immediately between the Highest, His Father, and heaven itself, i. e. the inhabitants of heaven; wherefore by Him alone all order is instituted and finished, and through Him the way is continued from the Highest to the ultimates of nature, and backwards, and thus both upwards and downwards"(no. 91).
And again we read, "The glory of the life of the Highest, which continued flowing forth from one end of the universe to the other, i. e. through ages of ages, from eternity to eternity, could not be communicated to our minds, and still less to the lower powers of our life, without causing there instantaneous death. For what communion can there be of the Infinite with finite things? or of Him who is Most Holy and Most Just with ourselves, who are from dust, and live in dust? Such a communion could not take place without our being constantly charged by His Sanctity with impurity, and without being condemned by His Justice, and assigned to death. Therefore He begat His Image, or His Son from eternity, by whom or by whose life He might mediately flow into the faculties of the life of our bodies; and because He is born for the sake of mediation, and as the Only Love of the Highest, therefore He is His Life... This is the life which is properly called celestial, and which affects the understanding and will of our minds (Part III, no. 121, photo-lithographic edition). This same doctrine is taught in the Adversaria in these words: "Messiah, the Only begotten Son of God, is at the same time God and Man, and from Him comes all the Divine which is ill man" (Vol. I, no. 523, p. 359). It is also contained in the following definition of the Son of God: "The Son, the Only begotten of God, is His Only Love, our Messiah, who is the King and Emperor of the kingdom of God in heaven and on earth, and the soul of that community which is also called the City and the Holy Jerusalem." This doctrine was also stated by Swedenborg in the last part of the "Old Series" of the Regnum Animale (Document 313, no. 617), which was published by Dr. Im. Tafel under the title, De Anima, in these words: "The head or chief of heaven is He, the Purest, who was without sin, i. e. our Saviour and Preserver, Jesus Christ, in whom by faith and love we can alone approach the Divine Throne" (p. 246).
This very doctrine that the Son of God is the only Mediator between the Father and men, and also that He is the Only Love of the Father we find repeatedly stated in the Diary for 1744, as appears from the following passages:
"Christ in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead, must alone be addressed in prayer... He is omnipotent and the only Mediator" (no. 40).
"The love of Christ constitutes the centre, and must be the ultimate end" (no. 52).
"God's grace and mercy which is in Christ overlooks man's damnable nature" (no. 64).
"Good can come from no other source, except from the Lord [Jesus]" (no. 138).
"Without Christ no one can come to God" (no. 180).
"In Christ is not the least pride; He makes Himself equal with others, although He is the greatest King" (no. 201).
III. In the Diary for 1744 the Son of God is almost constantly called Christ. And here it must be observed that before October, 1744, when Swedenborg began writing his work on the "Worship and Love of God," he always spoke of the Lord as "Christ." In that work, and also in the Adversaria up to Genesis, chapter iv, he called Him the "Only begotten of the Highest," or "Of God;" from chapter iv (Vol. I, no. 94) to chapter xxxiv (Vol. II, no. 1546, p. 776) "Messiah;" and through the rest of the Adversaria "God-Messiah." This appellation he continued to use in the "Spiritual Diary," until January 11, 1748 (no. 460). From that date until January 21 (no. 467) he speaks of "Jesus Christ," and "our Saviour" in connection with "God-Messiah." From January 22 (no. 489) to February 5 (no. 641) he uses the terms "Jesus Christ," "Saviour of the world," and the "Only Lord" (Dominus Unicus); he also speaks of "our Lord" (no. 568), of the "Lord God" (no. 612), and of the "Lord Jesus" (no. 617), alternating these terms with "the Lord" from January 26 (no. 564). From February 5 (no. 641) he uses the term "Lord" exclusively; although on February 9 (no. 689) the expression the "Word of God-Messiah" occurs once more.
Let us endeavour to show now that, up to the latter part of 1744, when Swedenborg closed his Diary for 1744, in speaking of the Son of God he generally used the term "Christ."
"I a dissertation on "faith and good works," written about 1736, Swedenborg says, "Faith properly consists in this, that man believes in the Almighty God, in Christ, the Saviour of the world, and in all that the revealed Word dictates in the Sacred Scripture" (Posthumous Tracts, p. 11).
In Swedenborg's Common Place Book from 1733 to 1740 (Photo-lithographic MSS., Vol. III, p. 140), we read as follows: "Concerning Faith in Christ. 1. It is clear that no one can be saved except by faith in God; 2. that no one can be saved except by Christ. 3. It is asked whether we are saved only by faith in Christ. 4. It is answered that a distinction must be made between those know Christ, Bad who are Christians, cannot separate Christ from God or the Father; hence they can be saved only by faith in Christ, who know Christ, and those who do not know Him. Those who because this faith is identical with the faith in the Infinite; so that they who have no faith in Christ, or what is the same thing, who deny Christ, cannot be saved; for faith cannot be separated, and cannot be in God and not at the same time in Christ.
But those who do not know that Christ came into the world, can, nevertheless, believe in God or in the Infinite, and not at the same time deny Christ; wherefore they can also be saved; for they believe in both, because they do not deny; and they do not deny, because they do not know. But their salvation can be only by Christ, who suffered for the whole world; for those who do not know Him, as well as for those who do know him, so that the only salvation is by Christ."
In Part III of the "New Series" of the Regnum Animale (see Document 313, no. 73), which Swedenborg wrote in the months of May and June, 1744 (see Note 164, VI), and hence simultaneously with the Diary for 1744, he says (p. 225), "Spiritual life consists in the love of the supreme good or of God Himself, and of His love, which is Christ Jesus," and again, "Without regeneration by the Divine Spirit or the Spirit of Christ, we call by no means enter the Kingdom of God."
IV. The Holy Spirit. Concerning the Holy Spirit we read in the Adversaria, as follows: "Life itself proceeds from Jehovah the Father, who is Truth and Goodness, by His Only begotten Son who is love itself, and thus by the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from Jehovah the Father by the Son" (Vol. I, no. 663, 431). Again it is written in the: OEconomia Regni Animalis, "As the sun of the world flows in by mediating auras, so the Sun of life and of wisdom flows in by the mediation of His Spirit" (Vol. II, no. 260). Again we read in the Adversaria, "When Messiah is spoken of alone, then also the Holy Spirit is understood which proceeds from Jehovah the Father by the Son, i. e. from the Son Himself, the Only begotten of God" (Vol. I, no. 510, p. 352). And in the Regnum Animale, New Series, Part III (see Document 313, no. 73), published by Dr. Tafel as Regnum Animale, Part IV, we read, "Without regeneration by the Divine Spirit or the Spirit of Christ, we can by no means enter the kingdom of God" (p. 225).
In the Diary for 1744 the nature of the Holy Spirit is described thus: "All seemed in a wonderful, transcendent manner to approach and conspire together; to rise up as it were and nestle itself in infinitude as a centre, where Love itself was; thence it seemed to extend itself, around and thus down again. In this manner it moved by an incomprehensible circle from the centre which was Love, around and thus hither again ..... Afterwards I perceived in the spirit that what proceeds from the centre which is Love, is the Holy Spirit" (no. 52).
"Man's thoughts contain within themselves no other end, and no other reason, than what comes either from the Spirit of God, or from the body" (no. 178).
"There are various kinds of spirits. The one Spirit which is that of Christ, is the only one that has all blessedness with it; by other spirits man is enticed in a thousand ways to follow with them; but woe to those who do so .....It is necessary, therefore, that a distinction should be made among spirits; which, however, cannot he done except through Christ Himself and His Spirit" (no. 179).
"Our whole will into which we are born, and which is ruled by the body and introduces thought, is opposed to the Spirit, which conveys to us God's grace and mercy; wherefore there is a continual strife, and we can by no manner of means unite ourselves with the Spirit which by grace is with us; and hence it is that we are deed for everything which is good, but for everything evil we are inclined from ourselves" (no. 64).
"If we have God's Spirit and life, then we have a daily victory but if we have it not, it is a daily defeat. We fall from one defeat into another" (no. 188).
"When any one receives chastisement from the Lord, he is gifted afterwards with a greater zeal, and more spirit, in going on with that to which he is led by the Spirit; so that chastisement and punishment augment the same" (no. 193).
V. The Atonement. The doctrine of the atonement, as believed by Swedenborg up to 1745, is thus stated by him in the Adversaria: "Lest the whole human race should perish, and that some seed might be vindicated for heaven, the Only Begotten of God, who on account of being the Word, is also the Creator of the human race, out of pure love, because from Himself, and thus out of pure grace, resolved Alone to fulfil the Divine Justice, or to become Justice or Righteousness; wherefore He offered Himself as a sacrifice, first in [the person of] Abel, sad afterwards in accordance with prophecy in his own body; and hence, Justice being fulfilled, and Jehovah, the Father, having been appeased, a new stock was raised up for Adam, or a new seed for the woman, from which sprang the Messiah, the Saviour of the world" (Vol. I, no. 98, p. 76). Again we read, "By the intended sacrifice of Isaac was prefigured that the Messiah, the Only begotten Son of God, the Only Love of His Father Jehovah, would be a sacrifice for the whole world, so that all might be justified through faith in Him" (Vol. I, no. 266, p. 201).
Further, "No one Cain satisfy Divine Justice except He who is God; nor could God suffer, unless He became a man, and thus in the body resisted temptations and suffered the punishments themselves which are spiritual, and more refined than any one of the human race could perceive in his mind. These punishments also the Only begotten Son of God had to sustain, until Jehovah, His Father, took pity on Him, and, out of pure mercy for His Only Love, snatched Him from the very damnation to which He had exposed Himself for the sake of the human race; and by this means the Justice of his Father Jehovah was satisfied, and the human race restored to grace; yet only by the Son, and on account of Him, who had become Justice, so that whoever believed in Him, should have it imputed to him as righteousness; thug by faith in the Messiah, as we read concerning Abraham, and by no means by the works of the law" (Vol. I, no. 614, p. 413). And "In order that heaven and the world might be conjoined, or the human race be Vindicated (vindicaretur) for heaven, all power in heaven and on earth was given to the Messiah who had become Justice or Righteousness; for without such power those things which had become disjoined, could never be reunited" (Ibid., no. 616, p. 414). And, finally, "Since Messiah sits at the right hand of His: Father Jehovah, i. e. since all power was given Him in the heavens and on the earths, He began a new creation; or, He undertook to create man anew, to plant a new paradise in a new Eden, and thus to establish a new kingdom of God; and hence to establish anew what would otherwise have gone to ruin, which is equivalent to creating a new heaven and a new earth" (Ibid., no. 616, p. 414). The same thing Swedenborg expressed in another passage: "The Ancient Paradise was planted and created by Jehovah God, i. e. by all the three persons of the Divinity, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; when therefore that garden was totally cut down, Messiah, the Only begotten Son of God, became the new Creator, who planted the new paradise again; but only from new men, i. e. from those who will be regenerated by the Holy Spirit" (Ibid., n. 499, p. 343).
These very same views on the atonement we find expressed in the Diary for 1744, in the passages quoted below in nos. vi to viii, as well as in the following words:
"The Son of God is love, and for the purpose of doing good to mankind, He took upon Himself their sins, even to their heaviest punishment; for if there is justice, mercy must exist by love" (no. 150).
"Christ is omnipotent and the Only Mediator" (no. 40).
VI. The blood and merit of Christ. We read in the Adversaria (Vol. I, no. 425, p. 292), "The life and soul of the blood of Messiah which appeased the Father, could not have been the blood itself, but the merit of that blood, which consisted in obedience to His Father, and in love towards the whole human race by which He was induced to undergo death, even the death on the cross, so that He might bear in Himself the sins both of the Jews and Gentiles, and thus remove them. Hence He became Righteousness itself, and indeed He alone;
and hence also the rest in the Christian Church and also among the Gentiles were justified."
In agreement with this doctrine concerning the blood and merit of Christ, we read in the Diary for 1744, as follows:
"From this may be seen the greatness of God's grace by the merit of Christ and the operation of the Holy Ghost" (no. 19).
"God grants His grace and mercy to all poor sinners who are willing to be converted, and who with an unshaken faith take refuge in His inconceivable mercy and the merit of the Saviour Jesus Christ" (no. 90).
"With God's grace I conquered in the strife, and the blood and merit of Jesus helped me" (no. 102).
VII. Imputation of the Justice of Christ. On this point we read in the Adversaria (Vol. I, no. 618, p. 415), "From his inmost root man teems as it were with guilt and putrid sores, for he is so infested with the poison of the serpent that there is nothing whole in him. This he derived hereditarily not only from his first parents, who, on account of forsaking the kingdom of God for the kingdom of the devil, were condemned to eternal death with the whole human race, their posterity; but, besides, from his own parents by a long succession, who heaped up vices on vices, whence they became so infected, that whatever comes from them, the least as well as the greatest, is putrid and impure. As such is the case, and Jehovah God, nevertheless, must be worshipped in holiness; from what other source then can the worship of Him, which must be holy in every respect, proceed, unless from God Himself who alone is holy? For it can never proceed from man, except by the imputation of the sanctity and justice which are in Messiah Himself the Only begotten Son of God; and, indeed, m such a manner that man who is impure, in the eyes of Jehovah God appears pure and whole by the sole intuition of Messiah who has become Justice or Righteousness, and thus solely by the imputation of His righteousness, and by no means by the imputation of the righteousness which comes from man by the works of the law."
That man from himself and from birth is utterly impure, and appears pure and whole solely by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, is a sentiment which runs throughout the whole of the Diary for 1744, as may appear from the following extracts:
"In every particular thought, and even in that which we consider pure, an infinite quantity of sin and impurity is contained, and likewise in every desire which enters from the body into the thoughts... Although, therefore, a thought may appear pure, it, nevertheless, is a fact that a person may think in a certain way from timidity, hypocrisy, and many other causes, which also may be traced out by an examination of the thoughts; so that on this account man is the more unable to free himself from sin, and there is not a single thought which is not very much alloyed with uncleanness and impurity. It is therefore best that man should every hour and every moment acknowledge that he is deserving of the punishment of hell, but that God's grace and mercy which is in Jesus Christ overlooks this." Again we read, "Our whole will into which we are born, and which is ruled by the body, and introduces thought that is opposed to the Spirit.... Hence it is that we are dead to everything which is good, but to everything evil we are inclined from ourselves" (no. 64).
"In order to receive good we must climb up to God; and this does not lie in our own power, even' though we suppose that we are able to do so from our own strength" (no. 67).
"Everything that comes from ourselves is dead, and is nothing but sin, and worthy of eternal damnation; for good can come from no other source except from the Lord" (no. 138).
"Christ, or God through Christ, must be all in all, so that we of ourselves cannot contribute the least towards it, and still less strive for it: wherefore it is best to surrender at discretion, and were it possible to be altogether passive in this matter, it would be a state of perfection" (no. 194).
"They who will strive to help themselves into the kingdom of heaven by their own effort, or to rise on high by themselves, labour in vain and are exposed to constant danger; which labour becomes light, when they address themselves to God, who is man's help in such a case" (no. 197).
VIII. The Efficacy of Grace. On the subject of grace we read in the Adversaria, as follows, "After the human race had been condemned to eternal death, i. e. to eternal torments and eternal punishments, there was nothing whatever left by which they could be raised and snatched from hell itself, except that Jehovah, the Father, should behold them in His Son; there was nothing left, therefore, but pure grace through Him who received the damnation of all in Himself, and by this means merited for the human race that grace from Jehovah, the Father. Whence it is that there is nothing in man which in any, not even in the least respect, can be called merit, thus nothing that can merit grace; but that same merit belongs to the Messiah Alone, by whom and from whom is all this grace ....
As the human race therefore could be admitted into the sight of God, and thus be restored to heaven, only by pure grace, and as the Messiah suffered death for the universal human race, it follows that all in the whole world are called to His kingdom, which is called the kingdom of grace [see Diary of 1744, n. 171; but only those are admitted into this kingdom who become righteous by faith in the Messiah, and thus by the Messiah Himself; and yet their justification is only the imputation of the righteousness of Messiah Himself, and thus the application of His righteousness by faith" (Vol. I, nos. 619, 621, p. 416).
The efficacy of grace, and the necessity of man's relying on the grace of God for his salvation is inculcated almost on every page of the Diary for 1744. We read there:
"This much have I learned in spiritual things, that there is nothing for it but to humble oneself, and with all humility desire nothing else but the grace of Christ.... When any one has God's grace, he leaves himself to Christ's pleasure, and acts according to His pleasure; a person is happiest when he is in God's grace" (no. 30).
"The only thing is--and I do not know any other--that man must in all humility thank God for His grace, and pray for it, and recognise his own unworthiness, and God's infinite grace" (no. 36).
"The sum of all I found to be this, that the one thing needful is to east oneself in all humility on our Lord's grace, to recognise one's own unworthiness, to thank God in humility for His grace: for if there is a feeling of glorification contained in it, the tendency of which is towards our own honour, whether it be a glorification of God's grace or of anything else, such a feeling is impure (no. 39).
"This is the sum of all: 1. That there is nothing but grace, by which we can be saved. 2. Grace is in Jesus Christ who is the seat of grace (the mercy seat). 3. Love to God in Christ promotes salvation. 4. Man then allows himself to be led by the Spirit of Jesus. 5. Everything that comes from ourselves is dead, and is nothing but sin, and worthy of eternal damnation. 6. For good can come from no other source except from the Lord" (no. 138).--
From the passages extracted thus far from the various works which Swedenborg wrote between 1736 and 1747, it is easy to see that the doctrine of three Divine persons, and the doctrines of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, and of justification by faith alone, which were professed throughout the whole of Christendom at his time, had still a considerable hold upon him.
Yet if we examine the state of his mind, as revealed in his writings at those times, more deeply, it soon becomes evident that Swedenborg was not rationally convinced of these doctrines; nay, that the framework, upon which these doctrines commonly rest in the minds of those who are intelligent in matters of the church, was completely wanting in his case, and that its place was supplied by principles of a different order altogether, which in time would give birth to an entirely new system of theology. The outlines of this new system of theology can be easily discovered in Swedenborg's writings at this time, wrapped up in the dogmas of the existing church like a vigorous infant in its swaddling clothes, which will soon grow up and become developed into a well-grown youth.
From all of this it appears that Swedenborg's theology in 1743 and 1744, and even still later to the beginning of 1747, was not entirely free from the charge of containing contradictory elements: the new theology which was being developed in him being contradictory to the dogmas he inherited from the church in which he was brought up.
We have seen in no. I of this Note, how he strove to reconcile the doctrine of three Divine Persons with the unity of God; we shall endeavour to show now, how far the doctrines of the New Jerusalem on the subject of Faith and Life, which are entirely opposed to the doctrines of the vicarious atonement and of justification by faith alone, were developed in him in 1743 and 1744.
IX. Faith and Life. In the "True Christian Religion," which was published in 1771, we read concerning faith as follows: "With regard to the formation of faith, this is effected by man's approaching the Lord, learning truths from the Word, and living in conformity to them. First, Faith is formed by man's approaching the Lord; because faith, properly so called, i. e. faith profitable to salvation, is derived from the Lord, and directed to Him. That it is derived from the Lord, is evident from His words to his disciples, 'Abide in me, and I in you; for without me ye can do nothing' (John xv. 4, 5); and that it must be directed to the Lord, is evident from the many passages of the Word where it is taught that it is requisite to believe in the Son. Now, since faith is derived from the Lord, and is to be directed to Him, it may be said that the Lord is faith itself; for its life and essence are in the Lord, and consequently from Him. Secondly, Faith is formed by man's learning truths from the Word; because faith in its essence is truth; for all things that enter into the composition of faith are truths: faith therefore is nothing but a complex of truths shining in the human mind; for truths teach not only that it is requisite to believe, but also in whom we are to believe, and what we are to believe.
The reason why truths must be taken from the Word, is, because all truths conducive to salvation are contained therein, and are efficacious because they are given by the Lord, and thence inscribed on the whole angelic heaven; so that when man learns truths from the Word, he enters into communion with angels, notwithstanding his ignorance of such a connection.... Thirdly, Faith is formed by man's living in conformity to truths; because spiritual life is a life agreeable to truths, and truths do not begin really to live till they are in actions. Truths abstracted from acts abide only in the thought; and if they do not also abide in the will, they are not within the man, but stand without at the threshold; for the will is the real man; and thought is so much and in such a manner the man, in proportion to the quantity and quality of the will joined to it" (no. 347).
Such is the doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning faith, as taught in the works which Swedenborg, as the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote after 1747; but this doctrine had been believed and professed by him long before that time, as will appear from what follows:
A. Nature of Faith. About 1736 he wrote, "Faith is properly this, that man believes in the Almighty God, in Christ the Saviour of the world, and in all that which the revealed Word dictates in the Sacred Scripture" (Posthumous Tracts, p. 11).
That faith comes from the Lord, and is truth seen from the Lord, nod not from man's own reason, appears from the following passage written on the cover of Codex 36 between 1736 and 1740 (see Vol. III, of Photo-lithographed MSS., p. 181): "Observation made during writing: The more the world is perfected in the sciences and in learning, the more is it estranged from God, who demands an ignorance of things, full of faith and of His praise; so that our sole knowledge ought to consist in praising God, and in attributing everything to Him, and that we ought not to inquire into the arcana of His nature, in order thereby to acquire an intellectual faith. As the world, however, has not yet reached such a, point, and regards this as absurd, therefore I am compelled to speak so as to convince them intellectually of every thing; although for myself I do not desire anything else than bare faith, and to celebrate only His glory as David did, and the rest in the New Testament. Wherefore also the Lord addressed Himself to fishermen and shepherds; because the rest could not understand anything of this kind."
Similar views to these Swedenborg expresses in the Diary for 1744; so he says in no. 26: "The external senses are more fallacious than what God says, which is the Truth itself; wherefore I ought rather to believe that than myself."
"Thoughts in matters of faith, about Christ, His merit, and the like, even though they be entirely favourable and confirmatory, still cause a certain disquietude, and give rise to opposing thoughts which cannot be resisted, whenever man tries to believe from his own understanding, and not from the Lord's grace" (no. 98).
"I am uncertain whether it is the highest [state], when man by grace no longer mixes up his understanding with matters of faith; although it appears as if the Lord with certain persons permits that the understanding should precede such states of assurance in respect to things which concern the understanding. 'Blessed are they who believe, and do not see'" (Ibid.)
"It is more difficult for the learned, than for the unlearned to arrive at such a faith....for man's understanding must first of all be abolished and overthrown; and this is God's work and not man's. It is also God's work for man to continue in that state. Faith is in this wise separated from our understanding, and resides above it. This is pure faith; the other as long as it is mixed up with our own understanding is impure. Man's understanding must be put in bonds and under the government of faith" (Ibid.)
"The ground of faith must be this, that He has spoken it who is God over all, and Truth itself. In this sense must be understood that we must become like little children" (Ibid.)
"That confirmations also obscure faith, may be seen from this consideration, that the understanding never goes beyond mere probabilities, and thus is constantly engaged, as it were, in trying major and minor terms. On this account the confirmations of our own understanding are always subject to doubt, by which the light of faith is darkened" (no. 99).
B. Faith and Charity. That faith and charity must be conjoined, and that faith without works is dead, Swedenborg believed from his earliest childhood. So he says in a letter written to Dr. Beyer, November 14, 1769 (Document 243, p. 279). "From my sixth to my twelfth year, it was my greatest delight to converse with the clergy concerning Faith, to whom I often observed that charity or love was the life of faith, and that this vivifying charity or love was no other than the love of one's neighbour. That God vouch-safes this Faith to every one; but that it is adopted by those only who practise that charity . . . . I knew nothing at that time of this systematic or dogmatic kind of faith, that God the Father imputes the righteousness or merit of His Son to whomsoever, and at such times, as he wills, even to the impenitent. And had I heard of such a kind of faith, it would have been then, as now, perfectly unintelligible to me. "The same sentiments Swedenborg expressed between 1736 and 1740 in his first theological essay on Faith and Good Works, which is printed in his "Posthumous Tracts" (pp. 10 to 15).
He works separate from faith; but, where there is a possibility of doing good works, the question is whether faith will save without them, according to the dogma of the Lutherans. We reply that the affirmative seems compatible neither with the Divine Word of revelation, nor with human reason; both of which lead rather to the conclusion, that faith without works is a nullity, and were it anything, would condemn, not save" (p. 9). After entering into all the scriptural and rational arguments bearing on the subject, he says on page 12, "Love exactly keeps pace with faith, for whoever has faith amounting to confidence in God, has also the accompaniment of love as inseparable from faith; for the grace of God is universal, in that when He gives faith he also gives love, and the love increases in the same degree as the faith; and when the faith is conjoined with love, it then for the first time constitutes saving or true faith." His next argument is that love implies action or that "love to God involves love to the neighbour;" whence he establishes the following position, that "Saving faith, which cannot be separated from love to God, necessarily involves good actions, or the actual exercise of love to the members of the society in which we live" (p. 14.) In the Adversaria we read, "The love itself which must be in faith and obedience is the Messiah Himself, the God who is all in everything; and without Him faith and obedience are dead; wherefore faith itself in the Messiah, and faith in net or obedience is the only faith which vivifies, and which produces those things which by agreement and union are something" (Vol. II, no. 707, p. 456).
This doctrine is expressed in the Diary for 1744, thus: "Faith is, indeed, a sure confidence which is received from God; but it, nevertheless, consists is every man acting according to his pound. in his doing to his neighbour that which is good, and continually more and more. A man must do so from faith, because God has so ordered it, sad must not reason ally more about it, but do the work of love out of obedience to faith; even though this be opposed to the lusts of the body and its persuasions. Wherefore faith without works is not the right kind of faith" (no. 111).
"Faith is purely God's gift, and is received by man when he lives according to the commandments of God, and when he continually prays to God for it" (no. 99).
X. Free-will. The doctrine of the vicarious atonement of Christ, and of justification by faith alone, is based on this doctrine respecting Free Will, "That man since the fall is entirely incapable of beginning, thinking, understanding, believing, willing, operating or co-operating anything from his own power in matters of a spiritual and Divine nature;
or of applying and accommodating himself to grace; but that his natural will is only for those things which are contrary to God, and displease him; therefore, that man in spiritual things is like a stock, but that still he has a capacity, not active but passive, whereby he can be turned to good by the grace of God." With this doctrine Swedenborg had never any sympathy, not even in 1743 and 1744, although he then spoke much of the necessity of "having grace," and of "taking refuge in the merit of the Saviour Jesus Christ," and continually says that "there is nothing sound and whole in man."
That, on the contrary, he was then fully convinced of man's freedom of will, and that he believed in the necessity of man's operating with the Lord in the work of reformation and regeneration, is clearly taught by him in the last volume of the Old Series of the Regnum Animale, written in 1743 (Document 313, no. 67), and published by Dr. Im. Tafel as Part VII of that work, under the title De Anima. We read there, "Every one acknowledges that our mind has the power of choosing or of thinking freely, and unless prevented by impossibilities also of willing and acting freely. Without the freedom of thought, and of action in conformity with thought, there would be no understanding and no will, and the very term 'will' should be expunged from our vocabularies, because we no longer know what is meant by it. Without the freedom of choice man could neither affirm nor deny; nor would there be any virtue nor any vice, nor consequently any morality. There would be no religion and no Divine worship; for these demand a mind endowed with freedom. Besides, there would be no granting of prayers and no imputation, because nothing could be regarded as our own; for who holds responsible a mere machine, or a person who acts under compulsion and not from himself? And if we, as men, regard actions from the will alone, which must not be in a state of compulsion, how much more will this be the case with Divine justice! In short without the gift of freedom we should not be men, but mere animals; for the human principle and our individuality consist in the power of thinking, willing, and acting in a state of freedom; and he who has the power of thinking in a state of freedom, has also the power of acting in such a state, because will or determination and action follow thought. Wherefore the truly human principle consists not only in being, but also in the power [of willing and doing] from ourselves" (p. 167). On p. 190 Swedenborg says, "The freedom of the mind consists entirely in this, that it may obey, or that it may not obey the findings of its understanding."
On p. 218 he speaks of the power which man has of changing his disposition (animus), where he says, "Changing the disposition is changing the very nature. It is easy to change good into evil; but much more difficult to change evil into good. This can never be done, except through the medium of the rational mind and its understanding, whether this understanding be man's own, or whether he be persuaded by faith or the authority [of others]. Our nature, too, is never changed, unless we conceive an aversion and a horror against evils, never allowing the mind to fall into such a state; or, when it does fall into it, snatching it out of that state by virtue of the freedom granted to it, and putting on another state according with a more perfect state. And even then our native disposition (animus) is not changed, unless we continue long in this new state, and constantly apply force and violence to the former state, and unless by a very frequent exercise and practice of the various virtues we put on an opposite state, and continue in it until it become a second nature to us, by which the former nature is expelled, each return of the former nature being a notification to us of the necessity of resistance. By this and no other mode call we put off our evil nature, and put on one which is good; and this is a most difficult thing to do in this life without grace and Divine help; but we succeed in it, when we go to work ourselves, and any imperfection which we may discover is removed by prayers addressed to God who is the source of good (ter optimus)." Thus far Swedenborg speaks of the power which every man has of changing and reforming his outward nature. But concerning the inner change of the soul, whence man's motives flow, he says on p. 220, "Here man's understanding is powerless except so far as it is instructed by revealed truth, the only power being faith which originates in God. When, therefore, the Divine Being is addressed in prayer, His spirit flows into man's soul and changes or perfects its state; when the soul is wicked, a long continued labour is necessary to make it good... And this labour consists in self-compulsion, in most ardent prayer, and in a constant endeavour to progress in that which is truly spiritual and Divine. These," he says finally, "seem to be the true principles, by which we may be spiritually perfected." But these principles, as every one will see, are thoroughly opposed to the doctrine of the vicarious atonement and of justification by faith alone, as understood in the Christian Church in Swedenborg's own days, and also in modern times; and it proves conclusively that while in 1743 and 1744 Swedenborg still held on to the doctrinal phraseology current at his time, he, nevertheless, associated therewith ideas which no longer belonged to the old, but to the new theology, which he taught after 1747.
The doctrine that man enjoys free will, not only in natural but also in spiritual things, and that in order to receive salvation from the Lord, he must co-operate with Him, is enunciated in several places of the Diary for 1744. We read there:
"Man must strive after salvation with fear and trembling" (no. 69).
"We must really do what is good, and execute it with God's grace and in the faith granted by God; for in this case we receive from our Lord every thing that we need and that is useful to us" (no. 68).
"We must labour in order to gain heaven" (no. 9).
"Faith is received by man when he lives according to the commandments of God, and when he continually prays to God for it" (no. 99).
"Man must do the work of love out of obedience to faith, even though it be opposed to the lusts of the body and its persuasions" (no. 111).
In respect to man's freedom of choice, which is continually preserved in him by the Lord, we read: "I call compare the action of the Spirit [by which the freedom of man's will is preserved] to a pair of scales; on one side of winch is our own will and our sinful nature, and, on the other, God's power. These our Lord so disposes in temptation, that they are in a state of equilibrium: as soon then as it is borne down on this side, he helps it up again. Such have I found, speaking in a natural manner, to be the case; and from this it follows that this is far from being our own power; this draws the scale down, and is rather opposed to, than co-operating with, the Spirit's power; and, consequently, it is entirely our Lord's work which is thus disposed by Him" (no. 34).
Such then are the principal features of Swedenborg's theology in 1743 and 1744, and by the complete concordance therewith of the theology set forth in the Diary for 1744, an additional proof is furnished of its authenticity.
NOTE 166.
SWEDENBORG'S PHILOSOPHY IN 1743 AND 1744.
It is not our purpose in this Note to give a full exposition of the philosophy taught by Swedenborg in 1743 and 1744, but we intend to show that the philosophical principles stated in the Diary for 1744 are identical with those inculcated by Swedenborg in other works written by him about that time.
I. Philosophy and Revelation. On the cover of Codex 36 written by the author between 1736 and 1740 (see Vol. III of Photo-lithographed MSS., p. 151), we read as follows: "The more the world is perfected in the sciences and in learning, the more is it estranged from God... We ought not to inquire into the arcana of His nature in order thereby to acquire an intellectual faith.... The Lord demands an ignorance of things, full of faith and of His praise.... wherefore also He addressed Himself to fishermen and shepherds; because the rest could not understand anything of the kind." Again we read in the same place, "That philosophy and its departments, and the physical sciences seduce us is clear, because they can extend only to visible and intellectual things, and cannot penetrate to higher things, which they regard as paradoxical; and hence philosophy believes nothing, because it holds that these things ought to be expressed by what it considers as something."
In the Diary for 11744 we read in agreement therewith: "Natural reason cannot agree with spiritual reason" (no. 8). "While reading God's miracles wrought through Moses, it seemed as if something of my own understanding was mixed up with it, so that I was not able to have so strong a faith as I ought. I believed, and yet did not believe. I was thinking that for this reason angels and God appeared to shepherds, and not to a philosopher, who allowed his understanding to come into play, which at all times would lead him to ask, Why God brought the wind when He called the grasshoppers together [Exodus x, 13]; why He hardened Pharaoh's heart, and did not work directly, with other similar things, which I considered; and the effect of which was such, that my faith was not firm. I looked upon the fire and said to myself, in this case I neither ought to believe that the fire is, since the external senses are more fallacious than what God says, which is the Truth itself; I ought rather to believe that than myself" (no. 26).
"Man [of himself] can know only so much as enters into his thoughts, and only when it enters also into the actions does he become convinced of it" (no. 64).
Other passages explaining the relation of the human understanding to faith, may be found in Note 165, ix, A.
Swedenborg, however, does not maintain that philosophy per se is opposed to faith and revealed truth, but only philosophy when it has become natural, and thus perverted. This appears clearly from what he says in the Adversaria (Vol. II, no. 914, p. 574): "Philosophy, such as it is at present in human minds, destroys all faith, but philosophy in itself, which is true philosophy, agrees with the things in the Divine Word;
just as external things agree with internal things, or nature with heaven, for nature is so constituted that there is a complete concordance or harmony. The philosophy of the human mind ought to be of such a nature that spiritual and heavenly things may be seen from it; and such a philosophy is possible, because such is the nature of philosophy in itself. When there is such a philosophy, then there is acquired by means of it an intellectual faith, to which the human mind may have recourse when there arise doubts about the things to be believed. But if the mind has recourse to it at the present time, faith is at once destroyed, for the philosophy of the present day is of such a nature that it expels faith, and thus extinguishes the light bf truth and induces darkness; the result of which is, that the mind can no longer be illustrated except by a miracle, viz. when a different state is induced upon the mind, which can only be brought about by misfortunes, sickness, and thus by anxieties, and finally by what are called pangs of conscience; consequently, by an indefinite variety of modes adapted to the state of each one's mind. It is evident, however, that this is much more difficult with such as are imbued with the philosophy of the present day then with the more simple ones."
The reason why the philosophy of the present day is of such a negative and destructive quality, is stated by Swedenborg thus: "Philosophy or human erudition judges and concludes spiritual from natural things; and as the natural man, since the fall, is of such a. nature as to be entirely opposed to the spiritual man and to fight continually against it, therefore the philosophy which is drawn from the rational mind of such a man is of such a nature, as to destroy the things derived from the Divine Word. Wherefore it is not so much philosophy itself, regarded in itself, which is at fault, as the human mind which has become such since the fall, and from which mind philosophy is drawn" (Ibid., no. 911, p. 571).
II. Influence of the will on the Understanding. Swedenborg says, in the OEconomia Regni Animalis, "I know not what darkness overspreads the rational faculties when the mind begins to swell with pride, or when our intuition of objects calls up in the objects themselves the image and glory of our own self. It is like pouring into some exquisite wine a liquid which raises it into a froth, sullies its purity and clouds its translucence. It is as if the animal spirits were lashed into waves, and a tempest raised the grosser blood into insurgent motion, by which the organs of internal sensation or perception becoming swollen, the powers of thought are dulled, and the whole scene of action in their theatre changed.
In those who experience these disorderly states, the rational faculty is crippled and brought to a standstill, or rather its movements become retrograde instead of progressive. A limit is put to its operations, which its possessor imagines to be the limit of all human capacity, because he himself is unable to overstep it. He sees little or nothing in the most studied researches of others, but every thing--oh! how vain-glorious--in his own; nor can he return to correct conceptions until his elated thoughts have subsided to their proper level. 'There are many,' says Seneca, 'who might have attained to wisdom, had they not fancied they had attained it already.' The Muses love a tranquil mind, and there is nothing but humility, a contempt of self, and a simple love of truth, that can prevent or remedy the evils we have described?' (Vol. I, no. 22, pp. 11 and 12, English Edition). Again we read in the Regnum Animale, "While the will is directed to the false, it is constantly detained in those things that confirm it, or are conformable to it" (Part I, no. 9, p. 5, English Edition).
This doctrine, viz. the great influence which is exerted upon the understanding by the will, is confirmed in the Diary for 1744 in these words:
"The will has most to say in the understanding" (no. 65).
III. Thought and Respiration. In the OEconomia Regni Animalis, we read, "As often as the brain is intent and thinking deeply, or is occupied with anxious cares, the lungs draw their breath tacitly and slowly, and the breast either rises to a fixed level, and fears by any deep breath to disturb the quiet of the brain, or else compresses itself, and admits only a small amount of air. When the brain is exhilarated and joyous, the lungs expand and unfold. When the brain collapses with fear, the lungs do the same. When the brain is disturbed by anger, the lungs are the same" (Vol. II, p. 67, English Edition). And again on p. 90 (no. 42), "Whenever the human brain is pondering reasons, and directing the rational mind to them, it desires to be calm, and to draw breath quietly, as is usual with intense thinkers." In the "Divine Love and Wisdom" we read, "Every one may perceive in himself that the understanding corresponds to the lungs.....because no one can think unless his breathing conspires and accords; wherefore when he thinks tacitly, he breathes tacitly, if he thinks deeply, he breathes deeply; he keeps back and relaxes, compresses and expands the lungs according to the thought, thus according to the influx of the affection from love, either slowly, hastily, eagerly, gently, or attentively; yea, if he hold his breath altogether, he cannot think except in his spirit by his respiration, which is not manifestly perceived" (no. 382).
This mutual relation between thought and respiration, to which no one, as far as we are aware, has called attention, except Swedenborg, is most distinctly referred to in the Diary for 1744. We read there, "On inhaling the 'breath the thoughts press in from the body, on exhaling it they are as it were driven out or rectified; so that the very thoughts have their alternate play like the respiration of the lungs. For the inhalation of the breath belongs to the will, and its exhalation to nature (see also Regnum Animale, Part II, p. 148, English Edition), and at each respiration the thoughts also undergo their changes, so that when wicked thoughts entered the mind, I had only to hold the breath, when they ceased. From this may be seen the reason why in deep thought the lungs are kept in a state of equilibrium and at rest, and breathe more naturally, and why the breath is then inhaled more rapidly than it is exhaled, just the reverse of what is usually the case; likewise, why when a person is in a state of ecstasy and the breath is retained, the thoughts are as it were absent; which is also the case in sleep, when both the inhalation and exhalation belong to nature, and when that is represented which flows in from above. The same may also be deduced from the brain, where all the inmost organs together with the brain are in a state of expansion during inhalation, and where the thoughts originate and have their course" (no. 65).
IV. End, Cause, and Effect. In the "Divine Love and Wisdom" we read: "There are three things which follow in order; these are called end, cause, and effect. These three must needs be in everything in order that it may be anything; for an end without a cause and an effect cannot exist; nor a cause, without the end from which it proceeds and the effect in which it is manifested; nor, finally, can an effect exist alone, without a cause and an end.... Moreover, it is to be observed that the end is the all in the cause, and the all in the effect; whence it is that end, cause, and effect are called the first end, the middle end, and the ultimate end" (nos. 167, 165). Again, "As regards love and wisdom, love is the end, wisdom the instrumental cause, and use the complex, continent, and basis of wisdom and love... Affection, thought, and action, are in a series of similar degrees, because all affection refers to love, thought to wisdom, and action to use" (Ibid., nos. 213, 214).
In agreement with this doctrine, we road in the Diary for 1744, "The inmost of individualities (unitates) consists entirely of the end, which is the reason of the cause; so that if our thoughts are also considered as individualities, they contain within themselves no other end slid no other reason than what comes either from the Spirit of God or from the body.
When it comes from the body, all from the inmost is sin; for all that we propose to ourselves is opposed to that which is spiritual. What it is by which we are governed, we can easily find out, if we reflect on our loves which accompany (thought)" (no. 178).
NOTE 167.
ERLAND BROMAN.
Erland Broman was a younger brother of Carl Broman, mentioned in Note 113. He was born in 1704, became chamberlain in 1731, assessor in the College of Commerce in 1734, councillor of commerce in 1739, court-marshal in 1741, and president of the College of Commerce in 1747. He was created a baron in the same year, and died in 1757. He is said to have enjoyed the favour of King Frederic, and to have had great influence in the affairs of the diet. Of him and Archbishop Troilus Dr. Kahl tells the interesting story contained in Document 290, no. 6. Concerning him we read in the "Spiritual Diary" as follows: "During his life in the world Er[land] Br[oman] was of such a genius that he only cared for worldly things. When he was dying, he prepared himself for the change with greater devotion than others, so that the clergyman and all thought he would go to heave on account of his repentance. With him I conversed on the third day after his death, and as soon as he met with some acquaintances from the world, and saw such tings as had delighted him in the world, he at once returned into his former life, so that his death-bed repentance become of no account (no. 5492-5495). In the same passage Swedenborg shows the reasons why Erland Broman was identified in his mind with "luxury, riches, pride" (see Document 209, no. 19). That such was the quality of Erland Broman is also distinctly stated in the Svenkt Biografiskt Handlexicon.
NOTE 168.
THE DATE OF THE OPENING OF SWEDENBORG'S SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
The opening of Swedenborg's spiritual sight was a very gradual process, as we have shown in the Introduction to Document 208 (pp. 144 to 147), and as he himself has declared in the following passage from "Heaven and Hell," "I was elevated into the light of heaven interiorly by degrees, and in proportion as I was elevated, my understanding was elevated, so that I was at length enabled to perceive things which at first I did not perceive, and, finally, such things as it had been impossible for me to comprehend" (no. 130).
In our Introduction to Document 208 we endeavoured to establish from Swedenborg's own statements the development which took place in his spiritual sight before 1745; by carefully studying which process it is very evident that' there were marked degrees in its progress: so that the date of the opening of his spiritual sight would be different, according as the first or the more advanced stages of this development are taken into consideration. Hence also he himself, according as he took a more or less advanced stage of the opening of his spiritual sight into consideration, assigned various years to this event, at one time declaring in favour of 1743, at another of 1744, and at still another of 1745.
Our object in this note will be to make an exhaustive analysis of all the passages where Swedenborg expresses himself on this subject; and to ascertain, if possible, the principle by which he was guided, in declaring at one time in favour of this and at another in favour of that period.
1. "During the space of almost eight months my mind, by the Divine grace of Messiah, has been governed by the spirits of His heaven; with whom I have conversed during that time almost continually in the day-time" (Adversaria, I, no. 943).
By referring to passage 2, which was written January 29, 1746, nine months and a half after he was fully admitted into the spiritual world, it appears that the above passage was written about December 10, 1745, and it thus fixes the date of the opening of his spiritual sight to take been ... 1745
2. "I have been in heaven, and at the same time with my friends on earth, from the middle of April, 1745, to January 29 (old style), or February 9 (new style); except during one month, which was while I was travelling to Sweden, where I arrived August 9 (old style)" (Ibid., no. 1003)... 1745.
The duration of the time from his admission into the spiritual world is here nine months and a half.
3. "No evil has as yet been injected by evil spirits which God-Messiah has not converted into good. This has been proved by the experience of many months, of nine" (Ibid. II, no. 88).
Swedenborg has here evidently deducted the month during which his spiritual experience had ceased (see passage 2), so that passage no. 3 seems to have been written about the middle of February, 1746, thus making actually ten months since his spiritual sight had been opened.
This passage also fixes the date of the opening as .... 1745.
4. "This experience has now continued for nine or ten months" (Ibid. II, no. 135).
In reality this experience had continued for ten or eleven months (see no. 3), dating from.... 1745.
5. "By the Divine mercy of God-Messiah heaven has been open to me now for almost a whole year, so that I could converse with the inhabitants of heaven, and gather thence experience in spiritual things" (Ibid. II, no. 1285).
This was written about the end of March, 1746, thus fixing the year when heaven was opened to him as ....... 1745.
6. "By daily experience which has now lasted about a year, I could not help learning and acknowledging, that I cannot utter a single word but what is permitted by God-Messiah" (Ibid. II, no. 1684).
This was written about the middle of April, 1746, as is proved by no. 2; dating his spiritual experience from..... 1745.
7. In no. 1957 (Adversaria, II) we read, "Once there appeared to me frogs of various sizes; and, indeed, so manifestly, that I could see them creeping before my eyes. Soon, however, they were collected into one body, when they became like fire, and burst with a noise, which reached my eels with a crackling sound, when the place was purified. This happened in London in the month of April, 1745. Something like smoke issued from my pores, but on the floor there was an appearance of a large number of worms creeping about." By reading this passage in connection with no. 2, and with no. 15 of Document 5 (Vol. I), the date of Swedenborg's manifest admission into the spiritual world is not only fixed in the middle of April, 1745, but the reader is also made acquainted with all the concomitant circumstances of this event. The testimony of this passage also goes for ............. 1745.
8. "Great care must be taken not to entertain in thought profane and cursed things; for these then infest the thought of the mind... I can solemnly attest that such has been my experience during the space of a year" (Adversaria, III, no. 1129, p. 173). This passage likewise yields the date of.... 1745.
9. "For fifteen months I have been in continual conversation [with spirits] speaking with them as a man with a man" (Adversaria, III, no. 3102).
In no. 4418 we read, "This was demonstrated to me very clearly in a dream in the nights from July 26 to 28, 1746;" from which it would seem that no. 9 was written about the beginning of July, 1746; which again gives the date....... 1745.
10. "This, by the Divine mercy of God-Messiah, it has been granted to me to learn, now for sixteen months" (Adversaria, III, no. 4682, p. 33).
As no. 4785, on p. 43 bears the date of August 3, 1746, it follows, that no. 4682, was written about the same time; which again fixes the date of Swedenborg's admission into the spiritual world as .... 1745.
11. "The conversation [with spirits] has now lasted for about a year and a half" (Adversaria, III, no. 7572).
Eighteen months from the middle of April fixes the date of this passage in the middle of October, 1746, and settles the date of Swedenborg's admission into the spiritual world as..... 1745.
Thus far our information is drawn from the Adversaria, the dates that follow are derived from the "Spiritual Diary."
12. "That spirits are instructed by the Lord by means of man, and thus receive knowledges, is a thing known to me by the almost continuous experience of two years and three quarters." February 18, 1748 (S. D. 821).
Two years and three quarters from February 18, 1748, lead back to the spring of.....1745.
13. "For nearly three years or thirty-three months I have been in such a state, that my mind has been removed from bodily things, and I could be in the society of spiritual and celestial beings." March 4, 1748 (S. D. 1166).
Thirty-three months from March 4, 1748, carries us back to the beginning of.....1745.
14. "By the long experience of three years it has been made known to me that the fantasies and lusts by which evil spirits excite men, are by various ways changed into good. May 16, 1748 (S. D. 1974). This passage again yields... 1745.
15. "By the most manifold, daily experience of three years, it has been made known to me, that men and spirits are compelled to think and speak as the Lord either permits or grants." May 27, 1748 (S. D. 2099) .....1745.
16. "For three years I have sensibly perceived that I am kept in the sphere of faith." August 5, 1738 (S. D. 2739).... 1745.
17. "For three years and a half ... I have been speaking with spirits." September 5, 1748 (S. D. 3058)..... 1745.
18. "I have been so now for four years, that I neither think nor speak anything from myself." April 21, 1749 (S. D. 4228).
From April 1749 to April 1745 is exactly four years
II. Thus far Swedenborg declared uniformly in favour of 1745, as the year when he was admitted into the spiritual world; henceforth, until 1766, we shall find him just as constantly deciding in favour of 1744.
19. "From eight to nine years I was in constant consort with spirits and angels" (S. D. 4618).
No. 4573 was written on August 6, 1752, so that no. 4618 must have been written very soon after, either in 1752 or 1753. Eight or nine years from 1752 or 1753 yields ..... 1744.
All the passages to which we have thus far referred, have been quoted from the author's posthumous MSS., most of those that follow are cited from the works as published by himself.
The question now arises whether the dates contained in his printed works refer to the year of their publication, or to the time when they mere written. The answer which Swedenborg himself gives to this question is, that the time of writing and not of publication must be taken; for both his works on "Heaven and Hell," and on the "Earths in the Universe," bear the imprint of 1758, and in the former he declares that for "thirteen," and in the latter that for "twelve" years he had been in consort with spirits. And, again, in no. 157 of the "True Christian Religion," he speaks of "twenty-six," and in no. 851 of "twenty-seven" years during which he enjoyed that remarkable spiritual intercourse. From the fact, therefore, that Swedenborg furnishes different dates in the works on "Heaven and Hell" and the "Earths in the Universe," which were published in the same year, it follows that these works were written at different periods, and that the dates of the opening of his spiritual sight must be computed from the time when these works were written, and not when they were published. And, on the other hand, from the fact that the author mentions two different dates in the beginning and end of the "True Christian Religion," it follows that the first portion of that work was written a whole year before its last portion; and, again, it confirms the idea that in computing the dates of the opening of his spiritual sight, we must not take into consideration the time of publication, but the time when they were written.
29. "Continuously for nine years I was in the consort of spirits and angels" (A. C. 6200).
This passage is contained in the Arcana Coelestia, Vol. V, published in 1753, and the question now arises, when was it written? As the MS. of that work was sent to London by instalments from Sweden (see Document 258, p. 497), and as no. 6200 is contained in the latter part of the volume, we consider ourselves quite authorized to conclude that it was written in the same gear in which it was printed, viz. 1753, which furnishes as the date of the opening of Swedenborg's spiritual sight......... 1744.
21. "It was granted me for twelve years to converse daily with spirits" (E. U. 1).
This work is in a great measure a reprint of the memorable relations published in the Arcana Coelestia from 1753 to 1756, from which work it was no doubt compiled by the author in 1756, although it was not published by him until 1758; which again yields the date....... 1744.
22. "For thirteen years it was granted me to speak with angels" (H. H. 1).
This work was most undoubtedly written in 1757 (as the last volume of the Arcana had been finished in 1756), although it was not published until 1758; which gives the date of
23. In the "Divine Wisdom" appended to the "Apocalypse Explained" (VII, 2) is contained the following corroborative passage, "I had daily intercourse with angels and departed men from the year 1744."......... 1744.
There can be no doubt whatever about the genuineness of this number; as this may be verified by a reference to the photo-lithographic copy of this work contained in Vol. III of the Swedenborg MSS., p. 42, line 5 from the bottom of the page.
24. "I have felt the influx from the spiritual world perceptibly and sensibly for nineteen years continuously" (D. L. W. 355).
This passage is contained in the latter part of that work, and therefore may be supposed to have been written in the same year when published, viz. 1763; which yields the date.... 1774.
25. "The Lord has been pleased to open the eyes of my spirit, and to keep them open for nineteen years"(C.L. J. 35).
It can be fairly assumed that this little work was written in the same year when published, viz. 1763; which gives the year......... 1744.
26. In 1764 Swedenborg declared to the Royal Librarian Gjörwell in Stockholm, that "God Himself had revealed Himself before him in May, 1744, while he was in London, and that since that time for twenty years he had been prepared for the reception of the new revelation" (See Document 251).... 1744.
27. "The Lord Himself has opened the interiors of my mind, which are those of my spirit, so that I may see those things which are in the spiritual world, and hear those who are there, as I have indeed now done for twenty-two years (See Swedenborg's first letter to Prelate tinger, written September 23, 1766, Document 229, p. 249) ..... 1744.
28. "I have been speaking with the angels for twenty-two years....Heaven was opened to me in 1744" (See Swedenborg's second letter to Prelate tinger, written November 11, 1766, Document 232, p. 257)..... 1744.
III. After 1766 to the end of his natural life Swedenborg uniformly declared 1743 to be the date when the Lord opened the interiors of his mind:
29. "The Lord has opened the interiors of my mind now for twenty-five" (C. L. 1).
This work, as published in 1768, is the epitome of a larger work written by the author on the same subject (see Document 313, p. 1003); and we must assume that the shorter treatise was prepared from the larger in the same year in which it was printed; otherwise we do not obtain 1743, but 1742 ...... 1743.
30. "I observed the influx from the spiritual world in a perceptible and sensible manner continuously for twenty-five years" (C. L. 419)..... 1743.
31. "The Lord Himself most mercifully appeared before me, His servant, in the year 1743; when He opened my sight into the spiritual world, and enabled me to converse with spirits and angels" (Swedenborg's letter to Dr. Hartley, written in 1769, Document 2).......... 1743.
32. "I have been in the spirit and at the same time in the body for twenty-six years" (T. C. R. 157).
See below, no. 33..... 1743.
33. "The interiors of my mind have been opened now for twenty-seven years" (T. C. R. 851).
As Swedenborg states in no. 791, that he finished this work on June 19, 1770, it follows that the first part of it was written in 1769, and the rest is 1770; which in both cases yields..... 1743.
34. "The Lord manifested Himself in person before me, His servant, and sent me to fill the office of receiving in the understanding, and of publishing by printing, the doctrine of the New Church" (Letter to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, Amsterdam, 1771; Document 246)...... 1743.
As early as 1776 some of the believers in the doctrines of the New Church doubted whether 1743 was properly the year when Swedenborg's spiritual sight was opened, and C. F. Nordenskjöld20 wrote to Dr. Beyer22 to ask him whether that number [in Swedenborg's letter to Mr. Hartley, no. 30] was not written by a slip of the pen. Dr. Beyer answered, "There is no slip of the pen in the year 1743, but it agrees with all the dates given in the books." (See his letter dated March 23, 1776, Document 254, p. 426). We see therefore that even Dr. Beyer, gave his weighty authority in favour of 1743, as the year when the interiors of Swedenborg's mind were opened; and the question now arises, how ought we, who have access not only to the printed works of Swedenborg like Dr. Beyer, but also to all his manuscript works, to explain the remarkable discrepancy between the dates assigned by Swedenborg himself to the opening of his spiritual sight, and which of these three years ought we to adopt as commemorative of the most important event in Swedenborg's life?
Our answer to this question is as follows: As Swedenborg in proportion to his increase in spiritual light antedated uniformly and consistently the opening of his spiritual sight, it seems but fit and proper that we should accept his final judgment in this matter, and declare likewise in favour of the year 1743; with the understanding, however, that the opening of his spiritual sight was progressive; that there was a distinct step made by him in 1743, another in 1744, a third in 1749, and still another in 1747, from which period he dates the publication of his theological writings in the only list of these writings which he printed with his name, viz. at the end of the work on "Conjugial Love," Latin edition, p. 328 (Document 254, p. 707).
One of the great uses of Swedenborg's Private Diary for 1743 and 1744 (Documents 208 and 209), is this, that it enables us not only to have some conception of his mental states during those years, but also to specify the precise time in each of these years when a new development took place in his interiors.
In no. 91 of that Diary (Document 209) Swedenborg says, "With God's grace I had a preternatural sleep, and this has been the case now for an entire half year." As this entry in the Diary is dated April 18, it follows that in the middle bf October, 1743, Swedenborg was brought into such a state as to his soul and body as he describes by "a preternatural sleep;" and during this preternatural sleep we must infer that that "opening of his interiors" took place to which he refers in no. 33 of the present Note.
As it is mentioned, further, in nos. 31 and 34 that "the Lord manifested Himself in person before him in 1743," it must be inferred that this took place during the "preternatural sleep" which he had ever since the middle of October; 1743; and that the Lord's appearance to him then must have been similar to that which took place in the night between April 6 and 7, 1744, and which is described in no. 27 of Document 209. As Swedenborg advanced towards the highest state of illustration which he enjoyed in this world, he perceived that the dreams which he had during his "preternatural sleep" in 1743 and 1744 were already glimpses into the spiritual world, wherefore he declares in no. 31 of the present Note, not only that "the Lord Himself most mercifully appeared before him, His servant in 1743," but also that "he opened his sight into the spiritual world," and thereby enabled him in time "to converse with spirits and angels."
In no. 84 of the private Diary (Document 209) Swedenborg says, "The most singular thing is, that now I represent the inner man, and as it were another than myself; that I visit my own thoughts, frighten them, i. e. the things of my memory; that I accuse another. This is evidently the development of a new state, and "this," he further says," has now lasted for twenty-one days;" and as this statement was penned by Swedenborg on April 16, it would seem as if this new development began on March 24, the date when he began his Diary for 1744 (Document 209). No statement of any kind is made in the passages belonging to Section II of the present Note that the Lord manifested Himself anew to him in March, 1744, although, as mentioned above, in no. 27 of the Diary (Document 209), written on April 7, he describes an appearance of the Lord before him, while he was at the Hague; and, besides, Gjörwell declares in no. 26 that "the Lord appeared before Swedenborg in May, 1744, while he was in London." This is quite possible, although it is not mentioned in the Diary for 1744; for during the whole of that month, while Swedenborg was engaged in the preparation of Part III, New Series of the Regnum Animale (see Note 164, vi), he made only two entries in his private Diary, from which it appears, however, that during that month he was in London. The dreams and visions which are recorded throughout the whole of that Diary, Swedenborg regarded in an advanced state of his illustration, from 1752 to 1766, as an actual glimpse into the spiritual world; and the Persons he then describes as having seen in his dreams, in a subsequent higher state of illustration he found to have been either the spirits themselves, or to have been represented by spirits.
In most of the passages of Section II where he speaks of his mental state in 1744, as for instance in no. 23, he says that "he had daily intercourse with angels and departed men;" yet his real state then is perhaps best expressed in no. 24, where we read that he then "perceived the influx from the spiritual world in a perceptible and sensible manner;" and the precise mode in which he then "perceived the influx from the spiritual world," is described clearly in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 192, where we read under the date of August 31, 1747, "For nearly three years [from about the middle of 1744] I have been allowed to perceive and notice the operation of spirits, not by a sort of internal sight, but by a sensation which is associated with a sort of obscure sight, whereby I noticed their presence, which was various, their approach and departure, besides many other things."
The third decided step in the opening of Swedenborg's spiritual sight took place in the middle of April, 1745 (see no. 2 of the present number), when the Lord again appeared to him, and indeed in the form which Swedenborg described to Messrs. Robsahm and Beyer (see Document 5, no. 15, and Document B, no. 32), and when the Lord introduced him into the spiritual world in such a manner that, as we read in no. 3 of the present Note, he was able to speak with spirits "As a man with a man."
A fourth and final change in the opening of his interiors took place on August 7, old style, 1747; under which date he states, that "there was a change of state in him into the celestial kingdom, in an image" (mutatio status in me, in cleste regnum, in imagine," see Document 313, Codex 6, no. 3). In this state Swedenborg wrote those of his theological works which he published as the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."
NOTE 169.
TRANSLATION OF A SWEDISH HYMN.
In nos. 18, 28, and 31 of Document 209 Swedenborg mentions a Swedish hymn: Jesus r min wn then beste, which we communicate here in English translation published by Mr. Richard M'Cully in his "Swedenborg Studies," p. 37:
Jesus is my best of friends,
None like Him 'mongst mortals born;
And shall I, whom He defends,
Join the world-His goodness scorn?
Nought shall raise a parting line
To hold me from His tenderest love;
One shall be His will and mine--
Lifelong here, for aye above.
Once He suffered death for me;
In that death I rise o'er sin.
Him atoning still I see;
Wondrous strength from Him I win.
Who, cold, sullen, sit complaining,
Knowing Christ has sealed his bliss?
Who, the ransom-gift disdaining,
E'er could fly such love as His?
In that well-proved love I bide;
Nought this heart from Him shall sever.
Angel-glory, mortal pride,
Wealth or want shall part us never.
Depth below nor height above
E'er shall hold my soul enticed,
Luring from a Father's love
Mine henceforth in Jesus Christ.
NOTE 170.
COUNT HENNING GYLLENBORG.
Count Henning Gyllenborg was the nephew of the two Gyllenborgs mentioned in Notes 87 and 115. He was born in 1715 and died in 1775. As a young man he distinguished himself greatly in the universities of Upsal and Lund. Afterwards he became a royal chamberlain, and in that capacity entered the diplomatic service of his country. In 1756 he was chosen senator of councillor-of-state (Riks-Rd), but retired in 1761. In Document 138 he is mentioned as one of the securities for his uncle Frederic Gyllenborg, who had borrowed 30,000 dalers in copper from Swedenborg. The first wife of Henning Gyllenborg, Maria Sophia Stjerncrona, was a sister of the Countess Gyllenborg, mentioned in Note 115.
NOTE 171.
AMBASSADOR PREIS.
Joachim Frederic Preis, the son of Prof. Preis of the university of Dorpat, was born in 1667. He became connected with the Swedish embassy at the Hague as early as 1695, and in 1713 was secretary of Ambassador Palmqvist, Swedenborg's early patron (see note 61), at whose house he no doubt made the acquaintance of the young Swedenborg. In 1725, Preis became ambassador Extraordinary at the Hague, a post which he filled for a great number of years. In 1756 he was created a baron, and he died in 1759 in his ninety-second year at the Hague.
NOTE 172.
PROFESSOR WINBOM.
Anders Winbom was professor of theology at Upsal, where he was a great favorite with the students. Gezelius' "Biografiskt Lexicon" for 1788 says concerning him: "it was an especial delight for him to toil and labour for others. He displayed an uncommon zeal and interest in instructing the youth of his country; wherefore he was universally respected and loved. His former pupils, who are occupying now [1788] places of honour, still speak of him with enthusiasm, as of a Swedish Gellert. He had the gift of making his subject interesting; he lectured with zeal, had fluency of speech, was ready with illustrations, and convinced his hearers. The result was that his lecture-room was always crowded, and that the number of his hearers was so great that they had to struggle for places. Winbom was born in 1687; he passed through the gymnasium at Skara, while it was under the superintendence of Bishop Swedberg. He had to struggle much with disease in his youth. In 1731 he was appointed professor at Upsal, and died in 1745.
NOTE 173.
COUNT CARL EHRENPREUS.
Concerning Count Carl Diedric Ehrenpreus Dr. Kahl217 says in his Narratiuncul, "He was a count, a senator, a knight, chancellor of the university at Upsal, and was born in 1692. Under the orders of Charles XII he was sent to Bender in the capacity of royal Secretary.
He was present at the famous and perilous battle which ensued there, and was made prisoner. But the King seeing and admiring his fortitude, redeemed him from servitude. He is described as a man of remarkable prudence, constancy, justice, probity, and fidelity." Concerning his state in the spiritual world, where it appeared that he did not respect the sixth commandment, see the "Spiritual Diary," no. 5996.
NOTE 174.
JOACHIM WRETMAN
Concerning him Cuno says (Document 256, no. 4), "Among the Swedish merchants of Amsterdam there was one, Mr. Joachim Wretman, whom I could trust as imbued with Christianity, and a man of intelligence." And again (Ibid. Nos. 10 and 11), "With Mr. Wretman he (Swedenborg) dined almost every Sunday; he also was his most intimate companion. When I first invited Swedenborg to my house, I extended the invitation also to Mr. Wretman." Seven of his letters to Swedenborg, mostly on business, have been preserved viz., Documents 210-214, 219, and 235. He was Swedenborg's purveyor of seeds and plants from Amsterdam; see Documents 213, 219, and 235.
NOTE 175.
COUNT GUSTAVUS VON BONDE.
Gustaf von Bonde was Swedenborg's superior at the college of Mines from 1721 to 1727. He was born in Stockholm in 1682, studied at Tübingen between 1701 and 1704, where he published a disputation which treated on algebra and physics. After his return home in 1705, he became chamberlain to the Queen Dowager; in 1711 he entered the College of Commerce; in 1718 he became governor of stergothland, and in 1721 was made President of the College of Mines. In 1727 he was promoted to the Senate, and in 1737 became chancellor of the University of Upsal. In 1739 he retired from public life, and devoted himself to the administration of his estates. In 1760 he was re-called to the senate, and removed to Stockholm, where he renewed his friendship with Swedenborg, and exacted a promise from him that he would visit him on his estate at Hesselby; see Document 216. After a severe illness he died in 1764.
To Count Bonde, as President of the College of Mines, Swedenborg dedicated in 1722 Parts I-III of the Miscellanea Observata; to him also is addressed a letter Swedenborg wrote on August 18, 1724; see Document 155, C.
Count Bonde, according to the "Biografiskt Lexicon," is reputed to have been "an enlightened and honest Senator, and a great scholar." At one time he is said to have taken an interest in astrology; but very soon he crossed out his mystical calculations, writing underneath these words: "Astra regunt orbem, dirigit astra Deus" (The stars rule the world, but God rules the stars).
NOTE 176.
JOHN CHRISTIAN EDELMANN.
The writings of this author were mentioned by Baron von Hatzel in the letter which he addressed to Swedenborg (Document 215), where he says, "Have you ever read Edelmann's writings? What do you think of them?" Cuno also speaks of him in these words (Document 256, p. 461), "If ever I made the acquaintance of an ignorant, but so much the more impudent man, it was the notorious John Chr. Edelmann, who has now been dead for many years. This man, who was in comparison with the deeply learned and pious Swedenborg, a beastly blasphemer of the Word of God and of the church, raised against himself whole armies of scholars by whom he was refuted. A silly fellow, like him, was not worthy of such treatment; for he made a name for himself simply by impudence and foolish arrogance. And what was the result of all this? He was infuriated more and more so as to expectorate more poison and gall, and to utter incendiary language?"
Edelmann was born at Weissenfels in 1698. He studied theology at Jena, where he inclined towards pietism. Failing to obtain an appointment in the church, he opposed the strict Luteranism which had sway at his time, and finally directed his arrows against the church in general and its prevailing creeds. At one time he tried to make common cause with the Moravians, but he could not agree with them. Soon after he joined a sect in Berleburg, who called themselves the "inspired." After being compelled to flee from that town, he found a refuge in Nassau with Count Hachenburg. Meanwhile he became more and more notorious by his polemical writings against the creeds and practices of the Christian church. Being persecuted everywhere he lived afterwards at Neuwied, Brunswick, Hamburg, Glckstadt, and finally in Berlin, where he died in 1767.
His principal writings are AA forced declaration of faith, which, however, is not forced upon others" (Abgenthigtes, jedoch Andern nicht wieder aufgenthigtes Glaubensbekenntniss), Neuwied, 1746; Leipzig, 1848; "Innocent Truths" (Unschuldige Wahrheiten), 15 nos. Bckeburg 1735-45; "Christ and Belial" (1741); "the Divinity of (Die Begierde nach der vernnftigen lautern Milch der Wahrheit), 1744. Selections from his writings have recently been issued in Berne (1847) and Berlin (1849).
NOTE 177.
PROFESSOR SAMUEL LF.
As appears from Document 220, Professor lf was married to Anna Dorothea Filenia, grand-daughter of Bishop Ericus Benzelius, and Swedenborg's eldest sister, Anna (see Document 9, Vol. I., p. 89). Professor lf, who was one of the greatest Latin scholars of Sweden of his time, was born in 1727. After finishing his studies at the University of Upsal, he was appointed professor of eloquence and poetry in the gymnasium at Linköping in 1759; and in 1773 he became professor of theology. In 1781 he was created dean of Linköping, and died there in 1796. Professor lf seems to have been somewhat interested in Swedenborg's writings; for Count Höpken wrote to Secretary Wargentin of the Academy of Sciences in 1772, "After the coronation there ought to be a hundred opportunities to send it (Swedenborg's 'True Christian Religion,') to Linköping to Professor lf." lf's stepbrother was Professor J. H. Lidén, who is mentioned in Document 282, p. 701, and in Note 258.
NOTE 178.
BISHOP ERIK LAMBERG.
This "violent anti-Swedenborgian," as he was called by the Rev. Arvid Ferelius (Document 267, p. 516), was born in Gottenburg in 1719. According to Dr. Kahl217 in his "Nya Kyrkan," &c. (Part III, p. 12), Erik Lamberg entered the gymnasium at Gottenburg in 1734, at the same time with Dr. Beyer, against whom he evinced such an unfriendly disposition, when the latter became interested in the writings of Swedenborg. Both left the gymnasium at the same time, namely, in the autumn of 1739, Lamberg going to Upsal, and Beyer to Lund.
Among twenty members of the gymnasium who went to the universities, Montin, the dean of the gymnasium for the time being and the professor of theology, pointed out these two as classical scholars, who were already able to compose short dissertations in the learned languages." This reputation Lamberg sustained when he travelled abroad in 1753, after having received the appointment of royal chaplain; for from the university of Leyden he received a gold medal for a Latin oration which he delivered there on the occasion of the birth of a Swedish princess. Soon after his return home in 1757 he was nominated Bishop of Gottenburg, and entered upon his office in 1762. He was presented by Swedenborg in 1766 with a copy of the Apocalypsis Revelata, (see Document 223); and a few months later with the Arcana Coelestia, which Swedenborg sent to Dr. Beyer instructing him to deliver it to the Bishop with his best respects (see Document 227). Again in 1768 Swedenborg sent his best respects to the Bishop through Dr. Beyer (see Document 237). In the same year in the month of October the subject of Swedenborg's writings was brought before the Consistory of Gottenburg; yet Bishop Lamberg was unwilling then and there to treat this question in an inquisitorial fashion, and was inclined to let the whole matter drop (see Document 245, p. 285). But meanwhile Dr. Ekebom, Dean of Gottenburg, maintained the opposition, and finally enlisted Bishop Lamberg on his side. Henceforth, both in Stockholm in the House of the clergy and in Gottenburg in the Consistory, Bishop Lamberg remained a zealous opponent of Swedenborg and of Drs. Beyer and Ros?(see his letter to the Consistory, Document 244, p. 310). He died in 1780.
NOTE 179
DEAN OLOF A. EKEBOM.
In Bexell's History of the Diocese of Gottenburg, 1835 (Gtheborg's Stifts Historia och Herdaminne), we find the following account of this theologian, who organized the first persecution on record against Swedenborg and his followers in Sweden (see Document 245). Doctor Olof A. Ekebom was born in Uddewalla in 1716. In 1730 he entered the gymnasium at Gottenburg. In 1736 he passed to the university of Upsal, in 1741 to that of Lund. In 1744 he travelled with a recommendation of Archbishop Jacob Benzelius.7 In 1745 he obtained his degree of Master of Arts. In 1746 he visited the university at Rostock, and on his return home was ordained into the ministry.
In 1749 he was appointed pastor of Ljungby, and in 1761 Dean of Gottenburg. In 1762 he was created Doctor of Divinity by the university of Greifswalde. He died in 1784." Little else is known of him personally except his opposition to Ros?and Beyer in the Consistory of Gottenburg. The Dean's seconder in the organization of this persecution was an assessor called Aurell (see Note 191), who assisted him with his knowledge of Swedish law, and acted as informer and accuser of Drs. Beyer and Ros? before the ecclesiastical and civil courts of Gottenburg, and the House of the clergy in Stockholm. The spirit by which Dr. Ekebom was animated against Swedenborg, and especially against Dr. Beyer, can be best seen in subdivisions B and P of Document 245, which contain the charges which he brought against them before the Consistory of Gottenburg and the King of Sweden.
NOTE 180.
ARCHBISHOP MENANDER.
Bishops Menander and Serenius, to whom Swedenborg presented in 1766 his Apocalypsis Revealata (see Document 226), and in 1771 his Vera Christiana Religio (see Document 245, p. 384), seem to have been Swedenborg's steadfast supporters during his troubles with the Consistory of Gottenburg and the House of the Clergy from 1768-1771. To Archbishop Menander also, who was at the time Bishop of bo, he addressed Document 228, where he arraigned in forcible language the falsities of the faith of the present time. Charles Frederic Menander was born in Stockholm in 1712; in 1728 he entered the university of bo, and in 1731 that of Upsal, where he formed a close friendship with the student Linnus, the great Swedish botanist, which ceased only at his death. To Menander Linnus usually confided all his writings before making them public; which speaks well for the Bishop's scientific attainments. Swedenborg also seems to have conversed with Menander on scientific subjects, for in the letter which he addressed to him in 1766, he not only discoursed with him on theology and the Apocalypsis Revelata, but also submitted to him his "Method of finding the Longitude," which he had republished in Amsterdam in 1766. After first serving in various capacities at the University of Upsal, he was ordained into the ministry in 1746.
From 1752 to 1757 he filled the fourth and third professorships of theology in the university of bo; and in 1757 was appointed bishop in the same place. He was a constant attendant at the Swedish Diet from 1756 to 1771, and especially at the memorable Diet of 1760, where he no doubt made the personal acquaintance of Swedenborg. In 1775 he was chosen archbishop, and vice-chancellor of the University of Upsal.
NOTE 181.
BISHOP JACOB SERENIUS.
Serenius was a zealous bishop and politician. He was born in 1700, and after passing through the university at Upsal, was selected by Bishop Swedberg for the Swedish pastorate in London. He continued in London as pastor of the Swedish church from 1723 to 1734; and mainly through his instrumentality the Swedish church in that place was build. In 1734 he saw through the press in Hamburg his Anglo-Swedish Dictionary. After his return to Sweden he was appointed rector in Nyköping, and in 1736 was made dean. In 1752 he was created a doctor of theology, and in 1763 became Bishop of Strengns.
He seems to have been favourably inclined towards Swedenborg; as the latter presented to him the "Apocalypse Revealed" in 1766 (see Document 226), and his "True Christian Religion" in 1771 (see Document 245, p. 384).
NOTE 182.
PRELATE TINGER.
"tinger," says the Intellectual Repository for January, 1830 (pp. 1 et seq.), "was a man of distinguished learning and piety, and highly respected by his country-men. He the author of many works, and attained the highest dignity in the church; he was appointed by his Serene Highness the Duke of Würtemberg to the prelacy of Murrhard. He was one of the first in Germany who became acquainted with the writings of Swedenborg. He translated many things from the Arcana Coelestia, and published the first German translation of the Earths in the Universe. He also published an analysis of Swedenborg's Natural Philosophy, and compared with his Heavenly Philosophy."
Further particulars respecting his life its follows: He was born May 6, 1702, in Gppingen, in the present kingdom of Würtemberg.
He was a boy of great promise, was educated in the schools of Blaubeuren and Bebenhausen, and in 1722 entered the university of Tübingen. There he became acquainted with J. Böhme's (Behmen's)40 writings, which exercised a lasting influence on his character. In 1729 after finishing his studies in Tübingen he travelled to Frankfort, Jena, and the university of Halle; thence he visited Count Zinzendorf in Hernhut. While there he received a notice to return home. He soon published his first work in which he advised the public generally to read Boehme's writings; and at the same time lectured in the university of Tübingen. In 1733 he travelled a second time to Zinzendorf in Hernhut; yet he could not make common cause with him, and left the community in the following year. Is Leipzig he published another work on the "Descent of Bed" (Die Herunterlassung Gottes). He thence journeyed to Berlin, and then again to Halle, where he lectured on the Sacred Scripture; afterwards he undertook a long journey to Holland; and then studied medicine for nearly a year with Dr. Kmpf in Homburg. In 1737 he finally returned home, where he became pastor of Hirsau near Calw. There he continued until 1743, publishing some new works, and among them one on the "restoration of all things," where he acknowledged the eternity of hell, but not of eternal punishment. This doctrine had, and still has, many adherents among the pietists of the kingdom of Würtemberg. After leaving Hirsau he became pastor in Schnaitheim, and afterwards in Waldorf, near Ulm. In the last place he investigated alchemy and published a work entitled, Inquisitio in sensum communem. (An Investigation into the nature of common sense). In 1752 he was appointed dean and ecclesiastical superintendent of Weinsberg, where he continued until 1759, and where he and his family suffered severely from calumny and defamation. From 1759 to 1765 he was dean at Herrenberg. Here he wrote a work entitled the "Philosophy of the Ancients." After passing through a severe illness in 1762, during which he wrote the second part of his work on AEarthly and Heavenly Philosophy," which treats of the philosophy of Malebranchee, Newton, Wolf, &c., he met with Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia; the memorable relations contained in the first volume of which he translated and embodied in Part 1 of the above work." The events of tinger's life after he became acquainted with the writings of Swedenborg are minutely related in Document 314. In the latter part of his life he was busy with a Biblical and Emblematical Dictionary, which has maintained its popularity up to the present day. He died at Murrhard on February 10, 1782.
NOTE 183.
PRELATE BENGEL.
John Albrecht Bengel was one of the most celebrated theologians of his times and highly respected by tinger, who addressed many letters to him, and asked for his advice on many subjects. Especially did tinger think highly of Bengel's literal explanation of the Book of Revelation, which he placed above the spiritual explanation of Swedenborg; he insisted that Swedenborg should interrogate the Apostle John in the other life, in order to learn from him whether Swedenborg's explanation of the Revelation "agreed more with the words of the text, than that of Prelate Bengel" (see document 233, p. 258). In a later letter (Document 314, B), he begged him to converse with Bengel's spirit in the other life, to which request Swedenborg, it seems, acceded, and brought him a satisfactory account of his state (see Document 314, F, p. 1057). Bengel was born in 1687, and after graduating in the University of Tübingen, and undertaking a long scientific journey, was appointed minister, and professor in the school of Denkendorf. There he continued until 1741, when he was appointed dean at Herbrechtingen; in 1747 he became a councillor in the consistory and prelate of Alpirbach. He died in 1752. He is reputed as the first German theologian who made a really critical examination of the texts of the New Testament; his edition of the New Testament being published in Tübingen in 1734; although he became more generally known by his explanation of the Book of Revelation (Erklrte Offenbarung St. Johannis) which was published in 1740, and has often since been reprinted. One of the results which he computed from that book was, that the world would last exactly 7777-7/9 years, and that the release of Satan and his being cast out would take place in the summer of 1836. Still there is no doubt that otherwise he was a most learned and pious man, and deserved the respect which was accorded to him by his contemporaries.
NOTE 184.
IMMANUEL KANT.
The name of the Philosopher Kant is of interest to the biographer of Swedenborg on account of his minute investigation into the "Extraordinary facts proving Swedenborg's intercourse with the spiritual world," which are discussed in Division E of Section X of the present volume (pp. 613-666).
His first knowledge of these facts he obtained in 1762, as is proved by his statement to Madame von Knobloch (p. 626), which is analyzed on p. 622. In 1766 he wrote his work entitled, "Dreams of a spirit-seer" (Trume eines Geisterschers), of which an account is given on p. 620, and in which he satirizes Swedenborg, and makes sport of his seership. After the appearance of this book, in order to oblige his friend, Madame von Knobloch, he had these facts investigated on the spot in Sweden, and the result of this investigate he communicated to Madame von Knobloch in a letter dated August 10, 1768, which appeared first in print in Borowksy's Life of Kant, published in 1804. In this letter, as there published, all the dates have been falsified; the letter itself, instead of 1768, is dated 1758, and all the other dates are altered to suit the circumstances. The object of this falsification was to produce the impression that the letter had been written before, instead of having been written after, the publication of the Trume, &c.; and that this work, and not Kant's letter to Madame von Knobloch, contained his final judgment in respect to Swedenborg. This falsification of dates was first exposed by Dr. Im. Tafel, and is abundantly proved in Documents 271 and 272.
NOTE 185.
J. C. DIPPEL.
In Document 233 tinger wrote to Swedenborg, "The theologians in the universities condemn you on account of your errors in respect to the Trinity, Justification, and Redemption, which you explain according to Dippel's method. John Conrad Dippel was born in 1673, and studied at first theology, but afterwards medicine and jurisprudence, because he could not bear the fetters of orthodoxy. Afterwards he wandered about in Germany and Holland, and lectured at the University of Strasburg, and finally went to Denmark.
There he vented his hatred against the clergy in such a manner that he was imprisoned on the island of Bornholm. After his release he went to Sweden, where he became renowned as a physician, and was even summoned to Stockholm by the King in that capacity. On account of representations made by the clergy he was compelled to leave Sweden, when he went to Berleburg, in Germany, where he died suddenly in 1734. Dippel, under the name of Christianus Democritus, published numerous writings in which he inveighed against the clergy and their doctrinal opinions. His own belief was that religion consists only in love and in self-sacrifice, wherefore he regarded almost all statements of doctrine as superfluous. Swedenborg mentions Dippel repeatedly in his "Spiritual Diary" (nos. 3485-3487, 5962 and 5995). He says there, "It was thought that Dippel possessed the ability of seeing things accurately, because he wrote against many persons, and in his writings appeared to excel others in understanding matters and things. Upon being examined, however, it was found that he was unable to see any truth, nay, the reality of anything, and that he was only skilled in defaming others. What resulted from himself was ridiculous and nonsensical, as for instance where he maintained that fire was spirit, &c." (No. 5962). "I was told that his style when he criticized others was such that it appeared full of science and intelligence; but that when he communicated his own ideas on systems, religion, and other things, he talked sheer nonsense" (no. 5995).
NOTE 186.
J. C. LAVATER
Among Swedenborg's correspondents was John Casper Lavater, celebrated as a theologian, and also as the author of an extensive treatise on Physiognomy, which appeared in several editions and was translated into English and French. He was born in 1741, and was thus twenty-seven years old when he wrote his first letter to Swedenborg in 1768 (Document 236). He intended early in life to become a minister of the gospel. In 1763 he visited the celebrated Dean Spalding in Pomerania, and after his return home in 1764, appeared in public in 1767 with his excellent "Swiss songs" (Schweizerlieder). This publication was succeeded by a more extensive poetical work, entitled "Prospects into Eternity" (Aussichten in die Ewigkeit), on which he desired to have Swedenborg's opinion, and of which he wrote him he "would willingly send him a copy, or, if he pleased, translate the principal parts into Latin" (see Document 236).
This work was published in Zrich from 1768 to 1773, in three volumes. In 1769 he was appointed minister at the orphan asylum at Zrich, in which capacity he addressed a second letter to Swedenborg (Document 242). In 1778 he was chosen assistant minister of the church of St. Peter at the same place, and in 1786 pastor in chief. His "Physiognomical Fragments" appeared from 1775 to 1778. His pastoral activity was extensive, and reached beyond Switzerland into Germany, where he corresponded with many pious families, and was consulted in matters of conscience. He displayed much interest in the public affairs of his country, and preached frankly and openly against all abuses; his zeal caused him to be imprisoned in May, 1799. He was liberated after a few months, and returned to his pastoral duties in Zrich, where in September of the same year he was shot by a French soldier, and after a lingering illness died in 1801. Dr. Im. Tafel says in his edition of the "Documents" (p. 417), "Whether Swedenborg replied to Lavater's letters is not known. But that Lavater was an apt student of his writings is proved by his dissertations on the Lord and the doctrine of the Atonement in his posthumous writings, which are composed altogether in Swedenborg's spirit." That Swedenborg corresponded with Lavater is, however, rendered evident by tinger's letters to Hartmann (Document 314, F); for on September 9, 1771, tinger wrote that "Swedenborg intended to visit Lavater," and under the date of September 19 he said that "on his way to Switzerland Swedenborg would pass through Stuttgart and Tübingen."
In his work entitled "Materials for the History of the New Church" (Zur Geschichte der Neuen Kirche) Dr. Im. Tafel refers to the following anecdote in the "New Jerusalem Journal" for 1799 (p. 268): "I must still tell you one anecdote of my late travels concerning Emanuel Swedenborg, which is this: The famous physiognomist and divine J. C. Lavater having formerly by letter expressed to me a desire to get some picture of Swedenborg, I took with me to Zrich a copy of the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, where you know a head of Swedenborg's is prefixed; and visiting Lavater, I talked to him of it, and the night before my departure sent him the book. We travelled at that time in company with a Countess Dames, a lady of the bed-chamber to the Queen of France, who wanted to stay one day longer at Zrich, was to rejoin us at Zug, and proposed to see Lavater the next day after our departure. This occasioned him to return me the book by the Countess. I had not thought fit, as I was not alone with him, to ask him any questions about Swedenborg.
But the Countess told me afterwards, that on his entrusting her with the book, she had naked him what his opinion was of Swedenborg: and to my great surprise, said she, he answered me, he did not think Mr. Swedenborg's experiences at all impossible. I have been exceedingly sorry since that I did not lead him into any conversation about this myself."
Dr. Im. Tafel adds to the above (p. 105): "Any one who has read Lavater's life by Gessner will see, that towards the close of his life his views approached the doctrines of Swedenborg, This is proved also by his 'Fifteen letters on the Scriptural doctrine of our reconciliation with God through Christ" is Volume II of his posthumous writings published in Zrich, 1081, pp, 1108; likewise by the dissertations, 'Jesus Christ ever the same, not limited by time and space,' &c., pp. 109-920. The above letters are dated from the year 1793, and in them Lavater examines all the Scriptural passages, which have a bearing on the questions, and shows that if these passages are regarded in the propel light, none of them contains the meaning which has been attributed to them, and which men became gradually accustomed to see in them."
See also Note 308, on Semler.
NOTE 187.
DOCTOR MAGNUS ROEMPKE.
This gentleman, who generally supported Doctors Beyer and Ros?in the Consistory of Gottenburg, was born in 1717 at Gottenburg, where his father was navy surgeon. He entered the university of Lund in 1734. In 1746 he went abroad, and in 1747 obtained his degree of Master of Arts in the University of Rostock, where he lectured in the philosophical department. In 1748 he was appointed teacher in the Gymnasium at Gottenburg; and in 1750 received the appointment of Alector" or professor of logic and natural philosophy. In 1752 he was ordained into the ministry; in 1768 was appointed second professor theology in the same institution, and in 1774 first professor. In 1779 he was created a dean. He died in 1784. By supporting Drs. Beyer and Ros?when he considered them to be right, Roempke incurred the displeasure of Ekebom and Aurell; wherefore they sought to raise the charge of heterodoxy also against him. This charge Aurell sought to fasten upon him by translating into Swedish a dissertation on Reprobation, which Roempke delivered in the synod of the ministers of the Diocese of Gottenburg, wherein he thought he discovered traces of a Swedenborgian influence. Their machinations, however, in this respect, completely failed.
NOTE 188.
M. G. WALLENSTRLE.
Martin George Wallenstrle was likewise one of those members of the Gottenburg Consistory who were opposed to the inquisitorial manner in which Dr. Ekebom persecuted Dr. Beyer. He was the son of Bishop Wallin, and was born in 1733. He remained connected with the Gottenburg gymnasium until 1777; was chosen Bishop of Calmar in 1789, and died in 1807.
NOTE 189.
PROFESSOR L. J. KULLIN.
Lawrence Julius Kullin, Dean Ekebom's right-hand man in the persecution of Drs. Ros?and Beyer, was born in 1714. In 1737 he entered the University of Upsal; in 1743 he obtained his degree of master of arts, and lectured at the University. In 1751 he was appointed assistant professor mathematics in the gymnasium at Gottenburg, and in 1759 ordinary professor. In 1762 he received holy orders, and in 1763 was created a dean. In 1774 he was appointed second professor of theology. He died in 1795. Dr. Beyer spoke of him and Dr. Ekebom as his "open enemies" (see "Handlingar," &c., p. 115).
NOTE 190.
PASTOR HEMPE.
Little is known respecting pastor Hempe, except that he was one of Dean Ekebom's followers in his persecution of Drs. Beyer and Ros? He was ordained in 1755, and was minister of the German Church in Gottenburg. He died in 1771. In the translations of the Gottenburg Consistory not many speeches of his are recorded; but he always voted with Dr. Ekebom and Dean Kullin.
NOTE 191.
A. J. AURELL.
Andrew John Aurell, an assessor in Gottenburg, made himself notorious as the volunteer prosecuting attorney of Drs. Beyer and Ros? According tot he laws of Sweden he, a complete outsider, could demand for publication, at his own expense, the acts of the Consistory of Gottenburg.
In this course he was, no doubt, abetted by Dr. Ekebom. Hence the publication entitled, Handlingar, rrande Swedenborgianismen och de so kallade Prediko-Frsken (Minutes respecting Swedenborgianism and the so-called Sermon-Essays). Whenever the Consistory met, he or his brother was present and claimed the proceedings of the previous meeting for publication. When the Consistory were too slow or cautious in their deliberations, he goaded them on and stimulated them to action. And after they had settled one point, he was always ready with one or two other points by which he sought to incriminate Dr. Beyer anew. At one time when the Consistory refused to entertain one of his points, he brought it before the civil tribunal of Gottenburg, and sought to involve Dr. Beyer in a civil suit. And again, when he found that, with Dr. Ekebom, Dean Kullin, and Pastor Hempe, he could not always command a majority in the Consistory, as in the case of Dr. Beyer's Dictata, he carried the case to Stockholm, by writing letters to Bishop Filenius,9 and forwarding to him the inculpating documents. A specimen of the spirit by which Aurell was influenced, may be seen in Document 245, J, p. 312, and also in the reply which Bishop Filenius addressed to him (same Document, p. 313). Aurell's was a vindictive, cruel, inexorable nature, void of mercy, and bent only on destruction.
NOTE 192.
BISHOP Lutkeman.
Bishop Gabriel Timotheus Lutkeman, who is mentioned by Swedenborg in Document 245, p. 306, was born in Stockholm in 1723. He was appointed royal chaplain in 1744, and always stood high in royal favour. In 1756 he was appointed the religious instructor of Prince Frederic Adolphus. In 1758 he was appointed Bishop of Gothland, in which capacity Swedenborg made his acquaintance in the Swedish Diet. He died in 1795.
NOTE 193.
COUNT CREUTZ
Count Gustavus Philip Creutz, Swedish Ambassador to the Court of France, to whose care Swedenborg desired to have his letters addressed (see Document 245, p. 297), was born in 1731 and died 1785. He was greatly beloved and respected at home and abroad. He was a poet, a philosopher, and an eminent statesman.
NOTE 194.
PETER HAMMARBERG.
Peter Hammarberg, merchant and banker of Gottenburg, and member of the town-council, was the brother-in-law of Dr. Beyer and an intimate friend of Dr. Ros? and also of Swedenborg. By him Swedenborg was first made acquainted with Dr. Ekebom's attack upon himself and Dr. Beyer (Document 245, p. 296). In writing to Beyer Swedenborg sometimes mentioned Messrs. Hammarberg and Wenngren in Gottenburg, and desired to be kindly remembered to them (Document 245, p. 309). On p. 384 we read that Mr. Hammarberg gave orders to a sea captain to purchase a few sets of Swedenborg's works, from which it appears that he was interested in the spread of the doctrines in Sweden. In 1787 he became a member of the Exegetic-Philanthropic Society.
NOTE 195.
COUNCILLOR WENNGREN.
Councillor Wenngren was another of Swedenborg's friends in Gottenburg. To him Swedenborg addressed a letter dated Jan. 8, 1770 (Document 245, p. 321), and to him also he sent his respects in a letter addressed to Dr. Beyer (Document 245, p. 309). Wenngren seems to have been present when Swedenborg first made the acquaintance of Drs. Beyer and Ros? for from him emanates Document 299, where this meeting is described. He also became a member of the Exegitic-Philanthropic Society in 1787.
NOTE 196.
BARON ROSIR.
Baron John Rosir, Chancellor of Justice, to whom the case of Drs. Beyer and Ros?and of the Consistory of Gottenburg was committed by the King (see Document 245, p. 315), was born in 1709 of poor parents. After finishing his studies in the University of Upsal, he was attached to the Court of Appeals in Stockholm (Seva Hofrtt). He afterwards gradually rose to the post of secretary of revision (revisions-sekreterare) in 1750, and in 1769 was appointed chancellor of justice, of which office, however, he was deprived again by the Swedish Diet in 1772, when he resumed his former post as secretary of revision.
In the same year, however, he was appointed president of the Court of Appeals in Stockholm, which office he filled until his death in 1789.
NOTE 197.
MAGISTER GOTHENIUS.
Johan Gothenius, a colleague of Drs. Beyer and Ros? was born in 1721 in Gottenburg, where his father was then a curate. He visited the Universities of Lund, Upsal, and Gttingen from 1739 to 1756; in 1757 he received his degree of master of arts at Lund. In 1760 he was appointed lector at the Gymnasium of Gottenburg. In 1762 he was ordained into the ministry; and in 1768 was appointed lector of logic and metaphysics. In 1772 he was made doctor of theology; in 1780 he was appointed dean; and he died in 1809. Gothenius was fellow-editor with Dr. Beyer of his Prediko-frsk (Sermon-Essays), which created so much discussion (see Document 245, p. 320). Bexell says, in his History of the Diocese of Gottenburg, AGothenius was a man of rare scholarship, based on a most thorough and profound study of the older classical literature, are enriched by a most extensive knowledge of the literature of his own times. There is scarcely any among the many periodicals that were published during his time in Gottenburg, which he did not enrich with contributions from his pen. He was a liberal theologian, and did not join Dr. Ekebom in his narrow opposition to Drs. Beyera and Ros?"
NOTE 198.
SENATOR Stockenström.
Count Eric Stockenström, to whom Swedenborg directed Dr. Beyer to send a copy of his letter dated April 12, 1770 (Document 245, p. 355), was born in 1703. After finishing his studies at the University of Upsal, he entered the College of Mines in 1725 where he no doubt became acquainted with Swedenborg. In 1747, when Swedenborg left the College, he was its secretary. Soon after he was transferred to the College of Chancery, where in 1749 he became a secretary of revision, and in 1758 Chancellor of Justice. In 1769 he was appointed senator, and at the same time was created a baron and a count. He finally became president of the College of Mines, and died in 1790.
NOTE 199.
COUNT HERMANSON.
Count Mathias von Hermanson (not R. Hermanson, as Swedenborg styles him in Document 245, p. 355) was the son of a celebrated professor at Upsal, the successor to Prof. Rosenadler.51 He was born in 1716, and after passing with distinction through the University of Upsal, entered the College of Chancery. In politics he was on the same side as Count Höpken and Swedenborg. In 1756 he edited the first Gazette published in Sweden, which was devoted to the business of the Diet, and opposed to the party at the Count. In 1759 he became one of the secretaries of state. In 1765, when the party of the "caps" was victorious, he was removed to the exchequer department; but in 1769 when a reaction took place, he was appointed senator; and in that capacity enjoyed the confidence of the Crown-Prince Gustavus III, and was continued in office even after the revolution of 1772. He died in 1789.
NOTE 200.
COUNT CLAES EKEBLAD.
This nobleman's name is mentioned several times in the preceding documents. In Document 245, p. 356, Swedenborg directed Dr. Beyer to forward a copy of his letter to Count Ekeblad; from which it appears that he expected the Count to advocate his cause and that of Drs. Beyer and Ros?before the Privy Council. That letter was written in April, 1770, and in the beginning of October in the following year the Count died. In Document 262 we read on the testimony of Dr. Spence221 that "Mr. Springer told him that Count Ekeblad had provoked him to draw his sword against him, differing about politics, but that they had made it up, and promised not to mention it to ally while they lived; that afterwards the Count had attempted to bribe him with 10,000 rix-dalers, which sum and circumstances Mr. Swedenborg particularly mentioned to him as having from conversing with the Count then just deceased... He also said, Swedenborg had told him that their once adversary in politics was not so bad a man as they had thought him, for he was then preparing for heaven."
From Note 121 (Vol. I, p. 706) it appears that Springer took an active share in Swedish politics from 1741 to 1748, when he made himself obnoxious to the government, by whom he was finally cast into prison, on the plea of "having used reprehensible language respecting the King of Sweden."
This seems to have been the time to which the first part of his story in respect to Count Ekeblad refers. For, as appears from Anrep, Count Ekeblad returned from his mission as ambassador to France in 1744; and after his return to Sweden both he and Springer took an active share in politics, especially during the Diet of 1746.
The latter part of the story, namely, that Count Ekeblad sought to bribe him with 10,000 rix-dalers, probably belongs to a later period; for as appears from Note 121 (Vol. I, p. 707) Springer was employed by the English government in 1762 to obtain peace between Sweden and Frederic the Great. And the means the English government thought fit to employ consisted in conveying the sum of L100,000 into the hands of the King of Sweden, in order that by the employment of this sum he might obtain a majority in the Swedish Diet. At that time Count Ekeblad, after the retirement of Count Höpken, held the premiership of Sweden, and it is quite possible that he had a suspicion of England's policy in respect to Sweden, and that he intended to apply the sum of 10,000 rix-dalers to induce Springer to act in the interest of the ruling party in Sweden, who were opposed to the conclusion of peace Dr. Spence relates, that "Mr. Springer each time, for he told it more than once, threw down his handkerchief on the floor while relating that part by my fireside, to shew with what abhorrence he refused the purse." Count Ekeblad must have made use of a third party in offering the money to Springer; as the Count was at that time in Sweden and Springer was in London, and it is not recorded that either left his place of residence at that time.
As Swedenborg, in conversing about Count Ekeblad, called him "their once adversary in politics," it seems that he did not fully endorse, after 1761, the policy of the party of the "hats," to which Count Ekeblad belonged, and that together with Springer he himself, was in favour of a speedy conclusion of peace with Frederic II.
As Count Ekeblad was born in 1708 he was nearly sixty-three years of age when he died.
NOTE 201.
GENERAL CHRISTIAN TUXEN.
General Tuxen, the personal friend of Swedenborg, who wrote the valuable account of his acquaintance with him contained in Document 255, was born on February 15, 1713. To his testimony concerning Swedenborg he appended the following account of himself, which is printed in the Appendix to the "New Jerusalem Magazine" for 1790 (pp. 264 and 265):
"I may further add what I believe I have told you concerning myself, viz., that in my childhood and youth I was religiously brought up by my parents, who never set me any evil example. My tutor having compelled me to learn by heart and without judgment the whole of the orthodox system of divinity, I was at that time more afraid of God than of the Devil, and when I went to the University I abhorred going to church, and hated even the very name of it. In my youth I was of a lively and gay disposition: the first time I read in the Bible the history of the patriarchs, I could not help thinking Jacob was a kind of impostor, and Esau a good man; and I could never approve of the general explanation of the articles of faith, which afterwards nearly reduced me to a state of unbelief, especially on reading Voltaire's epistle to Urania, which (with the exception of two unnecessary lines) I considered as a masterpiece. But God shewed me His mercy, for as I was once walking in the street, the idea started into my mind, When I die, I shall be annihilated! This thought did so much to terrify me that I got the better of my infidelity, and in my riper years, reading on a time some things in Voltaire's 'Dictionnaire Philosophique,' I put it by, and never afterwards looked into it, on account of his seductive and specious criticisms; all parts of which we find resolved and refuted by the explanation of the internal sense of the Word, in the writings of our late great friend. These confirmed me in my own ideas respecting the Last Judgment, which agreed with what he teaches on that subject. I confess, when I first began to read his works, and just cast my eye on the following passage, that a horse signifies the understanding of the Word, that I found myself, as it were, repelled, and not very well pleased: but afterwards when I read his works in series from the beginning, and with attention, though I found many things which surpassed my understanding and knowledge, yet happily I recollected at the same time the answer of Socrates to the other Athenian philosophers, who asked his opinion on the writings of Heraclitus, viz. 'That he did not understand them everywhere, but what he did understand was so excellent and good, that he did not doubt but the rest which he understood not, was equally so.' This encouraged me to read more and more, and what I understood I found for my own advantage; and it appears to me that no system of divinity is more worthy of the dignity of God, or more consolatory to man; and by the Divine help I will always retain this thought in my mind, until I can be convinced that any part thereof is either contrary to the Word and Scriptures of God, or to sound reason."
General Tuxen, it seems, made Swedenborg's personal acquaintance in the spring of 1768. It is true he states in Document 255 (p. 432) that he saw Swedenborg "a few years" after what he describes in no. 3 (p. 431), where he says that Swedenborg was asked whether he had seen King Frederic V, who had died the preceding year on January 14, 1766; so that according to this statement Tuxen must have met Swedenborg for the first time "a few years after 1767." That he saw him in the spring of the very next year, 1768, is proved by the following considerations: In no. 8 (p. 434) Tuxen states further that "some time afterwards" he was informed that Swedenborg had returned to Stockholm, and that the Consistory of Gottenburg had instituted an inquiry into the conduct of Dr. Beyer, which induced him to procure a copy of the printed Minutes. As these printed Minutes begin with March 22, 1769, and end in February, 1770, he must have become acquainted with their existence some time in the latter part of 1569, or about the time Swedenborg returned to Stockholm, that is in October, 1769. In Document 272 (pp. 623 and 624), however, it is proved that Swedenborg in the spring of 1768 had entered upon the journey from which he returned to Stockholm in October, 1769, so that Tuxen must have made his acquaintance in the spring of 1768. From this it follows also that when General Tuxen wrote his account of Swedenborg, which was in 1790 when he was seventy-seven years old, his memory not only of dates, but also of names, had already become uncertain, as is further proved by a footnote on p. 431.
In no. 8 (p. 434) General Tuxen further states that he wrote to Swedenborg on the subject of the Gottenburg transactions, and received a letter from him in reply. In his letter to the King dated
May 10, 1770 (Document 245, X, p. 375), Swedenborg declares that he obtained his first knowledge of the printed minutes of the Gottenburg controversy from "a general commissary of war at Elsinore," by whom he no doubt meant General Tuxen. The letter which Swedenborg wrote in reply to Tuxen and which is dated May 1, 1770, constitutes Document 245, X (p. 371).
From Document 252 (p. 405) it appears that General Tuxen corresponded also with Count Höpken respecting Swedenborg. The letters that Höpken addressed to Tuxen constitute Document 252, A-E. From one of these letters (p. 410), it appears that Tuxen is the author of the epitaph on Swedenborg given in Note 210.
In the list of members of the Exegetic-Philanthropic Society, published by Dr. Im. Tafel in his Magazin fr die Neu Kirche (Vol. I, no. 2, p. 70), General Tuxen appears with the following title: Mr. de Tuxen, Gnral-Lieutenant et Grand-Inspecteur de la Douane Elsineur (General Lieutenant and Inspector general of the customs at Elsinore).
The editor of these Documents was fortunate enough to obtain the letters which General Tuxen wrote between 1782 and 1791 to C. F. Nordenskjöld,20 the founder of the Exegetic-Philanthropic Society of Stockholm.
On the first letter, which is dated March 24, 1782, C. F. Nordenskjöld gives the following short account of Tuxen: "General Tuxen is more than sixty years old; he is an able and amiable man; but he suffers much, 1. From a wife, who is hysterical, 2. From limited means, and 3. From the world, who ridicule him for having adopted the religion of the New Church."
In these letters, which are ten in number, General Tuxen displays both ability and amiability. They abound with praise and good will for the two brothers Nordenskjöld; and evince that he had fully entered into the spirit and life of the New Jerusalem. We select only such extracts as have a direct bearing on the subject of these Documents:
(1). "The beautiful engraving of our departed friend (Swedenborg) Senator Count Höpken was kind enough to send to me by post, as soon as it appeared, accompanied by an obliging letter.
Its likeness is remarkable, and it does great honour to Mr. Martin, the engraver. I remember here what I read about forty years ago under a gold bust of Socrates, which was exposed for sale at an artist's, where the following words were written: 'Vous voyez de Socrate le vritable image, admirez ses vertus pltot que cet ouvrage' (You see here the veritable imabre of Socrates, admire his virtues rather than this bust). I wondered, however, why his coat-of-arms and his titles were not placed under it; although I agree that his name done is the greatest anonlment of the picture. For to Swedenborg apply a potiori the following words which M. de la Dixmerie said in his eulogy in respect to Voltaire: "Al recoit [recevait] du Ciel la lumire, et le monde la reoit de lui" (He received the light from heaven, and the world receives it from him).-March 24, 1782.
(2). Tuxen's account of Bernstorff will be found in Note 202.
(3). "I shall send your brother by the first opportunity, according to his desire, a short account of my acquaintance and of my conversations with the late Swedenbory; also a copy of the only letter that I ever received from him; likewise copies of his: letter to the King, as well as of other documents that I received from Swedenborg himself; and, finally, accurate copies of the four or five remark able letters which Count Höpken wrote to me.
These Documents, your brother said, he would translate into English, and have them printed in some weekly paper treating on matters connected with Swedenborgianism, which is about to be started in London. He thinks that in this manner they would be more widely spread, and more generally read."
The last letter of General Tuxen is dated March 26, 1792. How long afterwards he lived in this world is not known; but he probably soon after departed into the other life, as his letters are full of the descriptions of the ailments under which he was then suffering.
NOTE 202.
COUNT BERNSTORFF.
Count Andrew Peter von Bemstorff was born in 1735, in Brunswick-Lneburg. After finishing his studies in the Universities of Leipzig and Gttingen, and making a long journey through England, France, Switzerland, and Italy, he entered the service of Denmark, where his cousin Count J. Hartwig E. von Bernstorff was a senator and Councillor of State. In 1767 he, together with his cousin whom Frederic the Great called the "oracle of Denmark," were created Danish counts. In 1769 he was appointed privy councillor, but was removed from office when Struensee was appointed minister in chief. After Struensee's downfall he was re-appointed to his former office, and soon became a minister of state. He was instrumental in effecting several important treaties for Denmark; and was a constant protector of civil liberty and the freedom of the press. Under his administration Denmark became the asylum of free thought for Germany. By all possible means he stimulated the productive powers of Denmark; and under his fostering care commerce, manufactures, navigation, and agriculture flourished everywhere. In 1780 he found that he could not work together with Guldberg, the prime-minister, and retired from office; but he was recalled in 1784. He died in 1797, universally regretted.
In his letter to Gen. Tuxen (Document 245, p. 272) Swedenborg writes, "I send you the enclosed copy [his letter to the King, Document 245, X], which I have also presented to the Privy Council, that it may be communicated to Count Bernstorff and Count Thott, so that they may see what the state of the case really is." It is possible that by Count Bernstorff Swedenborg does not mean here Count Andrew Peter, but his cousin Count John Hartwig Ernst, who was then likewise Councillor of State in Copenhagen.
But as Count Andrew Peter Bernstorff in a conversation with General Tuxen actually declared himself as favourably inclined to the writings of Swedenborg, it seems more probable that he, and not his cousin, was meant here by Swedenborg.
General Tuxen wrote on this subject to C. F. Nordenskjöld, on August 25, 1787, as follows: "Three days ago I was in Copenhagen nod spoke with his Excellency Count Bernstorff, who unexpectedly asked me, 'Whether it was true that I was a receiver of Swedenborg's doctrine, and that I possessed and had read his writings?' Whereupon I answered, 'Yes, and I thank God for them.' 'I have them also,' he continued, 'and I have read much in them which is excellent, but when he relates to ns so many wonderful and singular things, I do not know what to say.' He maintained that His Majesty, the King of Sweden [Gustavus III], was much attached to Swedenborg's doctrine; upon which I observed that I was not certain of this, although I knew him to he a prudent and tolerant ruler, and that possibly it might be so. This gave occasion to a little discussion, when I asked him whether he was informed about the new society [the Exegetic-Philanthropic Society] which had been formed in Stockholm? To which he replied, Yes. I gave him a good deal of information, and mentioned to him the names of those of its members whom I thought suitable; among others I mentioned the name of Schinmeyer in Lbeck. 'I know him,' he said, 'he dined with me yesterday; he has a daughter married in town. Immediately after dinner I went for the worthy superintendent, and talked with him for over half an hour in the window, while there was a large company in the room.' The Count expressed himself very much delighted at making my acquaintance; although I could not do much in making the conversation really delightful to him; in fact it was easy for him to see that my desire to do what is right, exceeds the range of my knowledge and information. I told him that if God granted me life and means I intended to translate into Danish the small tracts and papers, which would be read before the Exegetic Society, sad print them at my own expense; as the smallest use I could do, as long as I lived; and that perhaps some one who would read them in the right spirit or from mere curiosity, might be enlightened by the truths set forth in them."
NOTE 203.
COUNT THOTT.
Count Otto Thott, to whom Swedenborg asked General Tuxen to forward a copy of Iris letter addressed to the King of Sweden (see Document 245, W, p. 372), was born in 1703. In 1736 he was called to the College of Commerce and the Rank of Denmark; and he was successively president of the College of Chancery, and head of the treasury department. Through Iris instrumentality the island of Aroe was added to Denmark. Yet it was not in the character of public administrator that Count Thott distinguished himself most. He was besides a most learned man, and thoroughly versed in ancient and modern literature so that his eulogist, Jacob Laden, observed that "he became an oracle for the learned at home and abroad; and hardly any one ever applied to him, without receiving the desired information." He had a most penetrating mind, and a most remarkable memory, which he retained to the end of his life. In his youth he was acquainted with, and enjoyed the teaching of the best Danish teachers such as Grammius, Magnus, and Rostgard. He studied in the Universities of Halle and Jena; and at that time already began collecting books for a library. His first library was destroyed in the conflagration of 1738. He formed anew library afterwards, his pecuniary means having meanwhile been enlarged by marriage. He purchased the library of the Earl of Oxford, and several other libraries, and at his death left a collection of books scarcely ever equalled by any private library. It consisted of over 100,000 volumes, 3000 MSS., and 300 MSS. written on parchment. Of early printed works he owned upwards of 2000 volumes. These and his MSS. he presented to the Royal Library. He instituted also a cabinet of coins and early gems, and treasured up ancient armour. He was so well versed in Latin, that when he wanted to compose anything in his own language, he first wrote it out in Latin. He was a great patron of the university; he was instrumental in the appointment of a professor of natural history, and he interested himself in the Astronomical Observatory, and also in the botanical garden. Count Thott died in September, 1785.
NOTE 204.
ASSESSOR QUECKFELT.
Assessor Samuel Gustavus Queckfelt of the Court of Appeals at Jnkping, it seems, wrote to Swedenborg in 1771, that if he would present himself in person before the Privy Council, a turn in the affair of Drs. Beyer and Ros?might be brought about. Among the members of the Exegetic-Philanthropic Society there was a lieutenant by the name of Queckfelt, who was probably a relation of the assessor. The assessor was born in 1720, he was removed from office in 1775, on account of some alleged irregular practices, and died in 1786.
NOTE 205.
THE LANDGRAVE OF HESSE-DARMSTADT.
Ludwig IX, Swedenborg's correspondent (Documents 246 and 247), was born in 1719. History reports but little respecting him. His country was deeply in debt when he ascended the throne in 1768, wherefore he summoned Baron von Moser in order that he might improve the condition of the country. His reforms operated very beneficially, but he was opposed in many quarters, and was at last brought by his enemies before the courts of the land. Landgrve Ludwig, as to his own person, was frugal, and retrenched the expenses of his court, which he removed from Darmstadt to Pirmasens. He was fond, however, of military affairs, and proud of his regiment of grenadiers, which was trained according to the Prussian system. The castle in which he resided in Pirmasens was destroyed during the wars which followed the French revolution. He died in 1790. A beautiful Monument to his memory was erected in the evangelical church at Primasens. His minister Venator, to whom Swedenborg likewise addressed a letter, is not know to history.
NOTE 206.
BARON TILAS.
Baron Daniel Tilas was in a certain sense Swedenborg's successor in the College of Mines, as his salary as assessor was the half which Swedenborg gave up after 1736. He was a learned but eccentric man.
After finishing his studies in Upsal, he entered the service of a miner in the capacity of a common labourer, in order to acquire a practical knowledge of the art of smelting. In 1732, when he was twenty years of age, he was inscribed in the College of Mines as an auscultant. He undertook many scientific journeys on foot through Sweden, Norway, and Finland, in order to enrich his own scientific acquirements, and to be of use to science and to his country. He was a large contributor to the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences; yet many of his discoveries and scientific discussions are also contained in the letters which he exchanged with the celebrated mineralogist Axel Cronstedt (Note 107). These letters are preserved in the Bergius Collection of letters in the Academy of Sciences; and among these the editor of these Documents discovered the two letters contained in Document 249, in which he discusses his acquaintance with Swedenborg. Baron Tilas became councillor of mines in 1755, and obtained the appointment of governor (landshfding) in 1755. His valuable collections of mineralogical specimens and other curiosities were all destroyed in the conflagration of 1751. In 1766 he was made a baron, and he died in 1772, a few months after Swedenborg. His first wife, whom he mentions in Document 249, died in her twenty-second year; his second wife, whom he married in 1743, died two weeks before him in 1772.
NOTE 207.
THE PRINCE OF PRUSSIA.
See Note 246.
NOTE 208.
LIBRARIAN Gjörwell.
Carl Cristopherson Gjrswell was born in 1731. He occupies a most important place in Swedish literary history. After having passed through the Universities of bo and Lund, and having made a lengthy journey through Europe, he returned to Sweden in 1751, when for a few years he was private tutor in a family with a view of preparing himself for the post of a missionary among the heathen. This idea he gave up in 1755 when he entered the Royal Library in Stockholm as an assistant librarian. At the same time he started the Svenska Mercurius (The Swedish Mercury), the first critical journal of Sweden, which in a short time made his name universally known through Sweden. This journal he published until 1765, when it was succeeded by the Svenska Magazinet (The Swedish Magazine), of which he published two volumes.
This was succeeded by the Tidningar om Lrda Saker (Literary Notices) from 1767 to 1769. From 1770 to 1772 he published the Allmnna Tidningar (General News). In most of these journals occur stray notices and items of news about Swedenborg and his writings, which are collected in Documents 282 and 283. The most important testimony, however which Gjörwell bore concerning Swedenborg is contained in Document 251, which contains the report of a conversation which he had with Swedenborg in 1764; this he published in one of his periodicals entitled Anmrkningar i Svenska Historien (Contributions to Swedish History). It is impossible for us to give here a complete list of all Gjörwell's periodical publications, which fill several hundred volumes, and which are a monument of industry, learning, and general information, such as few men have been instrumental in setting before the public. Yet strange to say, while he was constantly anxious to serve the public to the best of his ability, his country did not acknowledge his services; for whenever there was a preferment to be made at the Royal Library Gjörwell was passed over, and while he held the title of Royal Librarian and did the work of the Librarian, others took the pay; so that he was finally compelled in 1795 to give up his place, because he could no longer afford to serve the country for nothing, or for a merely nominal salary. Gjörwell died in 1811, in his eightieth year.
NOTE 209
PROFESSOR NILS WALLERIUS.
When Gjörwell asked Swedenborg (Document 251, no. 8) what Professor D. Nils Wallerius busied himself with in the other world, he said, He still goes about and holds disputations." Nils Wallerius was born in 1706. When he entered the University of Upsal in 1725, Wolf's philosophy had just been received there. The young student at once devoted himself to this branch of study, and in 1729 took his degree as master in philosophy; in 1735 he became lecturer in philosophy, and in 1737 professor extraordinary in that department. He possessed the ability to a very high degree of presenting clearly and concisely the principles of philosophy, and in a short time he gathered around him a large number of pupils, so that he was often compelled to commerce his lectures at two o'clock in the morning, and continue through the day to deliver from eight to ten lectures. In 1748 he was promoted to the professorship of logic and metaphysics in Upsal University.
In 1751, however, he was ordained, and in the following year was made a doctor of divinity. In 1756 he was appointed professor of theology, and in this new capacity acquired as much honour as in the former. In 1764 he was suddenly attacked by a severe fever, and departed this life two weeks before Gjörwell asked Swedenborg about his condition in the other world. He published a number of philosophical and theological writings.
NOTE 210.
EPITAPH ON SWEDENBORG.
A copy of the following epitaph, which was printed in Stockholm after Swedenborg's death, was kindly presented to the editor of these Documents by Prof. Nils Adolk Erik Nordenskjöld, of the Academy of Science sin Stockholm, the celebrated North Pole explorer; as appears from Document 252, A (p. 410), it was composed by General Tuxen210.
TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, THE WELL-BORN ASSESSOR, WHO DIED IN LONDON, ON MARCH 29, 1772.
Swedenborg ferme et tranquille, liu mme rendu,
"Alla chercher au Ciel le prix de la vertu.
(Firm and tranquil, self-composed, Swedenborg went to seek in heaven the prize of virtue).
De Wittre Man, Du starcka Anda
Af lder och af ra mtt,
Du lefde stilla, rbart, Rtt,
Och Dig i jordiskt grl ej blanda.
Du, som de Lrdas undran wckt!
Och fven dumhets hopen retat,
Du, som i syner sanning letat
Och flgd det ljus Dig Himlen rckt.
Din Hga lifstid, myckna mda,
Du til wr saknad slutat har.
En Man s djupsint och s Rar,
Som lefvande har talt med dda;
Hans Minne npplig glmskan bryr,
Dess Namn med Tidens wingar fljer,
Wr SWEDENBORG ej Ryktet dljer,
Det ej fr Afvunds tadel skyr.
(Thou man of wisdom, mighty spirit!
In age advanced, in honours rich.
Thy life was quiet, modest, right,
In earthly broils thou didst not meddle,
The wonder of the learned didst excite,
The ignorant and silly didst provoke.
Thou hast in visions truth revealed,
The light displayed which heaven benign has showed thee.
Thy life of many years and many cares
Has closed: to our sorrow, our grief.
A man so wonderful, so rare,
Who, yet alive, spake with the dead.
His mem'ry shall continue ever,
The wings of time his name shall bear;
Our Swedenborg, in glory bright,
The shades of envy cannot reach.
NOTE 211.
BISHOP DR. CELSIUS.
This Bishop, at whose house young Collin, who gave his testimony concerning Swedenborg, was private tutor (Document 253, p. 421), was one of the Swedish historians. He was born in 1716; and soon after passing through his academical studies, was appointed lecturer on the history of literature, and also librarian at Upsal. In 1747 he was chosen professor of history, but in 1751 left his professorship, and entered into the service of the church. From 1753 to 1777 he was pastor in various churches in Stockholm and at last in the "Stor-kyrkan" or cathedral. In 1777 he was elected bishop of Scania, and pro-chancellor of the University of Lund. Celsius is best known by his History of Gustavus I, which appeared in 1746 and 1753, his history of King Erik XIV, which was published in 1774; and his church History of Sweden, of which, however, only one volume appeared in 1767.
Besides this he wrote an epic poem entitled: Gustavus Wasa, in seven cantos, which was printed in 1744.
In a letter dated Wilikala, May 13, 1793, the editor of these Documents found the following statement: "a certain Magister Lindegren from Upsal, who is private tutor to the sons of Baron Wrede, said that his father, who was Dean (Prost) in Lindesberg, and had previously been long pastor in Linden, had several letters from Assessor Swedenborg, but among them scarcely more than one of importance; this treats of justification by faith alone. But to another clergyman, of the name of Capke, Swedenborg wrote many letters of importance; these are now said to be owned by Bishop Celsius in Lund, who reads them often, but is very cautious about them, and preserves them carefully.
NOTE 212.
JOHN CHRISTIAN CUNO.
J. C. Cuno, known also in New Church literature as David Paulus ab Indagine, the name under which he addressed a letter to Swedenborg (Document 256, C), was a merchant and banker in Amsterdam. In 1769 he made the acquaintance of Swedenborg there, and has preserved to us one of the most interesting accounts of him which we have; it constitutes Document 256, pp. 441 to 485. This account is contained in Cuno's autobiography, of which all that concerns Swedenborg was published in 1858 by Dr. Aug. Scheler under the title, "Jottings of an Amsterdam citizen upon Swedenborg" (Aufzeichnungen eines Amsterdamer Brgers ber Swedenborg). For further particulars, see the Introduction to Document 256, p. 441. In these "Jottings" Dr. Scheler communicates also the leading events of Cuno's life, as he collected them from his autobiography. We quote the following particulars:
Cuno was born in 1708 in Berlin, where his father had a lucrative business, which enabled him to give his son an excellent education. From 1715 to 1722 he was in the Gymnseium Azum grauen Kloster." After finishing his course, he was appointed private tutor in the house of his former professor, J. L. Frisch. At that time the recruiting officers were constantly about, and in order to protect himself from them, he had his lodgings for two years inside the walls of the gymnasium. In 1724, however, when he was scarcely sixteen years of age, he was pressed into the army in spite of all the protests of the authorities of the gymnasium.
After three weeks he was advanced to the post of sergeant in the regiment, which was commanded by General von Forcade. After a severe illness he obtained permission through the General to finish his studies at the University of Halle. This permission, however, he forfeited in 1728, when on account of a slight technical offence during a review in Potsdam, he received a severe personal reprimand from the King of Prussia, and was degraded to the post of a private musketeer. For three years he was in this subordinate position; but meanwhile the regiment in which he was placed came under the command of the Crown-Prince of Prussia, who very soon felt drawn towards the young student, and advanced him again to the post of sergeant. In 1733 he was detached from the regiment, and seat out with a lieutenant of a long recruiting expedition, during which he visited Vienna, and went even as far as Agram in Croatia. During this trip he was treated in a most friendly manner by the Jesuits. Immediately after his return to his regiment in 1734, he was sent out on a second recruiting expedition to Austria and Hungary. The favour shown to him by the Crown-Prince had excited the envy of many of his comrades, so that these expeditions were highly welcome to him; he therefore gladly embraced the opportunity in 1735 of entering on a third similar expedition, which took him to Munich, There he acted also in the capacity of a secret military agent, in order to find out the actual military strength of the Elector of Bavaria. In May, 1736, he returned to his regiment, when he was sent by the Crown-Prince on a fourth recruiting expedition to Italy, which gave him an opportunity of seeing Rome and Venice. In May, l738, he returned again to his regiment, which was stationed at Buppin, where he remained during a whole year, when he was sent out on a fifth expedition, in company with a, secret enemy, by whom he was calumniated at home. The result of this calumniation was that he received a note from the Crown-Prince, in which he expressed his displeasure, and threatened him with additional marks of his dissatisfaction. Cuno felt unable to put up any longer with such treatment, wherefore he resolved to desert from the Prussian army. On his return to Germany he tried in vain to find a position in the Universities of Tübingen and Marburg, either in a literary or artistic capacity,--for he was a poet, as well as an artist; until at last, on the advice of Professor Christian von Wolf, the famous philosopher, who was at that time professor at Marburg, he resolved to try his fortune in Holland. After an eventful journey from Marburg to Amsterdam, he managed within a year to marry the rich widow of a merchant, through whom he came into the possession of the extensive business of her late husband. The name of the widow was Elsje Warsing, and she died in 1761.
Both while a soldier and a merchant Cuno was a, prolific writer, in prose as well as in poetry. The first work of consequence which he had printed was "Moral Letters" (Moralische Briefe), twenty-four in number, which he addressed to his adopted son, John van der Laagry these letters, which were written in poetry, were printed in 1747; a second edition appeared in Hamburg in 1752; they were translated also into Dutch and Latin. In 1749 his "Ode to his Garden" (Cuno's Ode an seinen Garten) appeared. This Ode pleased several renowned botanists, and they induced the author to publish a second enlarged edition with engravings. In 1765 he published the first volume of a collection of hymns, which was followed in 1759, 1762, and 1764 by three additional volumes. His most extensive poetical work was a "Messiad" in twelve cantos, which appeared in Amsterdam in 1762.
The date of Cuno's death is uncertain; the Biographie Universelle reports him to have died in 1780, Meusel maintains that he still lived in 1796, while Guden states that he died in 1783.
NOTE 213.
BARON DE BRETEUIL.
Baron de Breteuil was the ambassador of France to the Hague in 1769, and had previously been ambassador to the Swedish court. Cuno reports respecting him, on the authority of another person (Document 256, p. 451), that "he tells everywhere such great things about Swedenborg, because he is simple enough to believe them himself" Cuno from his own experience says on p. 452, that "he had seen letters at Swedenborg's house from the French ambassador inviting him to the Hague."
Louis Auguste le Tonnelier, Baron de Breteuil, was born in 1733. He first entered the military service of France, where he distinguished himself by decision, penetration, and indefatigable activity, so that the attention of Louis XV was directed to him, who sent him in 1758 as minister to the court of the Elector of Cologne. In 1760 he was initiated into the secrets of the policy of the French Court and sent as ambassador to Russia. Thence he was sent to the Court, of Sweden, where Ire strengthened the hands of the French party. In 1769 he went to Holland, afterwards to Naples, and in 1775 to Vienna.
After his return to France he was made Minister of the Royal House in 1783, in which capacity he made himself popular at first by ordering the release of several prisoners of state, and by introducing sundry improvements in Paris. Very soon, however, he developed into one of the most zealous defenders of absolute power, so that he created many enemies, and in 1787 was compelled to retire from office. After the downfall of Necker he became minister again for a short time. But when Louis XVI rejected his advice to retire with the troops to Compigne, he left France and settled in Soleure in Switzerland where he received from the King plenary power to labour among the courts of the north of Europe for the re-establishment of the royal power in France. For this he was indicted by the Convention. Forgotten of all parties, Breteuil retired to Hamburg, where he lived from 1792, until he received permission in 1802 to return to France, where he died in 1807.
NOTE 214.
PARACELSUS.
In his letter to Swedenborg (Document 256, p. 473) Cuno referred to Paracelsus in these words: "This great investigator of nature, and finally of the mysteries of religion, was a real ornament of his age and a paragon of learning. His contemporaries admired in him the great physician and chemist; and posterity with still admire these qualities in him. Yet the church and Christendom abhor him as a mystic, and as a man who would judge of Divine things from natural things." And again on p. 478 he says, "In the whole history of the world I have found no other scholar with whom I could compare him [Swedenborg] but the great physician and chemist Theophrastus Paracelsus."
Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus, was born in 1493 in Maria-Einsiedeln in Switzerland, where his father was physician and chemist. Through him he obtained instruction in these departments, and afterwards was sent to Trithemius, Abbot of Sponheim, and to Sigismund Fugger, by whom he was initiated into alchemy. Dissatisfied with alchemy he left his teachers, and travelled through a great part of Europe in quest of knowledge, curing diseases. In 1526 he received a call to the chair of medicine at Basel, where he remained for two years. While there he burned in public the works of Galen and Avicenna, whom he declared to be perverters of science. In 1528 the magistrates of Basel decided against him in a certain case, when he suddenly left his professorship and Basel.
He then continued his journeys through Alsace and Germany performing great cures, and at the same time proclaiming against superstition in science and religion; and making important discoveries in chemistry and medicine. By his relentless exposition of abuses, wherever he came into contact with them, he made many enemies, who avenged themselves by denouncing him as a quack and as the anti-christ; and as a glutton and wine-bibber. He died at last in Salzburg in 1541, where he was probably murdered. Paracelsus was a most prolific writer; he is said to have written as many as 364 works; of these, however, only a few were printed. The completest edition of his works was printed in ten volumes at Basel, in 1589; yet a number of the works therein included were not written by him.
NOTE 215.
JUNG-STILLING.
John Henry Jung, called Stilling, was born in 1740. At first he intended to become a charcoal-burner, but he served afterwards his apprenticeship to a tailor. Meanwhile he did not neglect his education, so that in course of time he aspired to become a schoolmaster. As he did not succeed in this, he returned to his trade, but having a disposition which inspired confidence and affection, he soon left it again, and became private tutor. After saving up some money, he studied medicine in Strasburg, where he associated with Goethe. After finishing his studies he settled down in Elberfeld as a physician, and became celebrated as an oculist. In 1778 he received a call to a professional school at Lautern, where candidates were prepared for the civil service; and after this institution was merged in the University of Heidelberg he removed to that town as a professor of agriculture; in 1787 he accepted a call to the University of Marburg as professor of political economy, but in 1804 returned to Heidelberg as ordinary professor in the same department. Towards the latter part of his life he retired to Carlsruhe with the position of privy councillor, and died there in 1817.
The fame of Jung-Stilling is mostly due to his writings. In 1777 and 1778 he published an account of his own life under the title: "Henry Stilling's youth, his early manhood, and his wanderings," which was succeeded in 1757 by "Henry Stilling's domestic life." A second edition of these works was published in Berlin, in 1806, under the title, "Henry Stilling, a true story," in five volumes.
He acquired greater celebrity, however, by his other somewhat mystical writings, which bear the following titles: "Theobald, or the fanatics," of which three editions were published; "Nostalgia" (Heimweh); and especially his "Theory of Pneumatology" (Theorie der Geisterkunde), which was translated into English; and his "Scenes from the spiritual world" (Scene aus dem Geisterreiche), published in 1803.
In his "Pneumatology" he relates in respect to Swedenborg the "three extraordinary facts," which are discussed in Section X, Subdivision E (pp. 613 to 666). Stilling's account of the "Conflagration in Stockholm" is contained in Document 273, B, p. 630; his account of the "Lost Receipt," is identical with that of Dr. Clemm, on p. 637, but a second account derived from the Russian Ambassador Ostermann is given in Vol. XIII of his "Collected Writings" (Smmtliche Schriften); see Document 274, p. 645. Stilling's account of the "Queen's Story," is given in Document 275, O, p. 659. In addition to these he furnishes a fourth proof of Swedenborg's communication with spirits in his APneumatology" (see Document 257, 8, p. 486), and a fifth in his "Memorandum-book" (Taschenbuch) for 1809 (Document 257, B, p. 489).
In his "Memorandum Book" for 1809 Jung-Stilling defines Swedenborg's state as one of somnambulism; he denies therefore that his spiritual sight was opened, and maintains that he was in a state of ecstasy, and that he received all his communications from spirits who spoke through him. He describes Swedenborg's state as a sort of nervous disease, and thinks that he ought to have resisted his communications with the other world. Stilling, therefore, classes Swedenborg among the soothsayers, and declares that his communications with the other world were illicit, and in violation of God's Word.
The allegation that he was in a state of somnambulism, and possessed by spirits, Swedenborg himself denies most strenuously; as for instance in his conversation with Gjörwell (Document 251, no. 7), where he says: All his I see and know without becoming the subject of any visions, and without being a fanatic; but when I am alone, my soul is as it were out of the body, and in the other world; in all respects I am in a visible manner there, as I am here."
The charge of somnambulism and mediumship which Jung-Stilling brings here against Swedenborg is most minutely investigated and refuted by Dr. Im. Tafel in his "Documents respecting Swedenborg, German edition Vol. IV, pp. 95-118.
NOTE 216.
PETER III.
Peter III, Feodorowich, Emperor of Russia, whose death, according to Jung-Stilling (Document 257, B, p. 490), Swedenborg announced in Amsterdam at the very hour when it took place in Russia, was a grandson of Peter the Great, and was born in Kiel on February 21, 1728. His mother was Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great, and his father Duke Charles Frederic of Rolstein. His name by baptism was Charles Peter Ulrich, which name he bore as Duke of Rolstein-Gottorp. On November 26, 1742, the Empress Elisabeth appointed him, in agreement with her father's wishes, grand duke and czarewich, i. e. successor to the throne of Russia. In 1745 he married Princess Sophia Augusta of Anhalt Zerbst, who on joining the Greek church assumed the name of Catharine Alexievna; and on the death of the Empress Elizabeth, on January 5, 1762, he ascended the Russian throne under the name of Peter III. He was a great admirer of Frederic the Great, and soon after his accession to the throne concluded peace with him. While he was collecting an army, wherewith to assert against Denmark his claims to the duchy of Schleswig, and when he was just about assuming the supreme command, he received the news of a conspiracy which had broken out in St. Petersburg, at the head of which was the Empress Catharine herself, who had succeeded in obtaining the support of the Russian nobles who were dissatisfied with the innovations of the emperor. Mnnich, whom the Emperor had summoned from Siberia, in vain counselled him to return to St. Petersburg at the head of his troops, who were then with him at Oranienbaum, in order to crush the insurrection. The Emperor was irresolute and wavering, and missed the opportune moment. The insurrection grew hourly; in the night of the 8th of July, 1762, Catharine was proclaimed Empress, and Peter III declared to be dethroned. Nothing else remained to him but to submit to the force of circumstances; though he was no longer able thereby to save his own life. His death seemed necessary to Catharine for her own protection; it ensued therefore on July 17 (July 6, old style), 1763, in Ropscha, where Orlov, one of the conspirators, is said to have strangled the Emperor with his own hands.
NOTE 217.
STEPHEN PENNY.
Stephen Penny of Dartmouth was one of the first receivers of the doctrines taught by Swedenborg, as appears from a letter which he addressed in 1749 to John Lewis, the publisher of the Arcana Coelestia, on the appearance of the first volume of that important work (Document 258, B). From the "Memoir of Wm. Cookworthy," referred to in Note 219, it appears that Stephen Penny was a friend of Mr. Cookworthy, and that "he was, not improbably, the means of brining the Arcana under Mr. Cookworthy's notice." In 1769 Mr. Stephen Penny, who then styled himself an "accomptant," published in Bristol a little work bearing the following title: "Letters on the Fall and Restoration of Mankind, addressed to all the serious part of every denomination." This little book may be looked upon as the first work explanatory of the doctrines of the New Church. In 1769 it was followed by a poem, entitled: "an Incentive to the Love of God, from a view of his goodness in the creation and redemption of man;" to this the author also added an essay "On the Happiness of Love."
NOTE 218.
REV. JOHN CLOWES.
The Rev. John Clowes, Rector of St. John's, Manchester, was an indirect contributor to the "Documents concerning Swedenborg" from having induced the Rev. T. Hartley,1 who was personally acquainted with Swedenborg, to enrich Mr. Clowes's translation of the "True Christian Religion" with a beautiful tribute to the life and character of Swedenborg, a great part of which we have introduced into Document 259 (pp. 511-521). He has also been instrumental in preserving an important expression respecting Swedenborg from the lips of John Wesley,238 which is recorded in Document 268 (pp. 568 and 569). But, besides, he ranks in the first place as a translator of almost all the works of Swedenborg into English, and thus occupies a most prominent place in the bibliography of Swedenborg's writings, for which reason his name is of frequent occurrence towards the close of Document 313, Section XII. The following account of his life and character is gathered from an address by the Rev. Samuel Noble at meeting of the three societies of the New Church in London, to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of Clowes, and also from a sermon which he preached in memory of him at the New Jerusalem Church in Cross Street, Hatton Garden, on June 19, 1831:
Mr. Clowes was a native of Manchester, where he was born in the year 1743, being a son of Joseph Clowes, Esq., who for many years practised as a barrister in that town and neighbourhood. He had an excellent education, and went at an early age to the university of Cambridge; where, while yet very young, he highly distinguished himself in his academic pursuits, took the degree of M. A., and was elected Fellow of Trinity College. When he was twenty-six years of age, in 1769, the rectorship of St. John's in Manchester was offered to him, and as he had just passed through a severe and protracted illness, which brought him to what he considered a happy state of humiliation, to use his own words, "he accepted this office with cheerfulness, as a, boon of Providence, intended for the improvement and security of his eternal good;" and he continued the contented incumbent of this small living for the very unusual period of sixty-two years, refusing more than one subsequent offer of high preferment in the church.
Four years after his acceptance of the rectorship the writings of Swedenborg fell into his hands under the following interesting circumstances: He formerly had an intimate friend, the late Richard Houghton, Esq., of Liverpool (see pp. 568 and 569), who was also the intimate friend of the celebrated John Wesley. Mr. Clowes being on a visit to this gentleman was asked by him whether he had seen Swedenborg's Latin work then recently published, entitled Vera Christiana Religio (The True Christian Religion); and on Mr. Clowes replying in the negative, he exacted a promise from him that he would procure it. On returning home, Mr. Clowes did procure it accordingly: but when he had got it, being much engaged, he felt no desire to peruse it; and it lay many months upon the table in his library without his looking into it. When he was one day about to set out to spend some time at the house of a friend who lived at some distance in the country, in passing oat of his study to mount his horse, he threw open the book which had so long lain untouched upon the table; when his eye caught the words Divinum Humanum (Divine Humanity). He merely thought it an odd sort of phrase--read no further,--closed the book,--and rode off to his friend's. He awoke next morning with a most brilliant appearance before his eyes, surpaseing the light of the sun: and in the midst of the glory were the words Divinum Humanum. He did not then recollect having ever seen those words before: he thought the whole an illusion,--rubbed his eyes, got up, and made every effort to get rid of it; but in vain.
Wherever he went, or whatever he did, all day, the glorious appearance was still before him; though he spoke of it to no one. He retired to rest at night, and fell asleep. When he awoke the morning following the words, Divinum Humanum, encircled by a blaze of light still more glorious than before, immediately flashed upon his sight. He then recollected that those were the words which he had seen in the book on his table at home. He got up, made an apology to his friend, and took an abrupt leave: and, in his own words, no lover ever galloped off to see his mistress with half the eagerness that he galloped home to read about Divinum Humanum. He speedily perused the whole book; but his feelings and convictions on reading it are best described in his own words.
In a paper left behind him he says, "The delight produced in my mind by the first perusal of the work entitled the Vera Christiana Religio, no language could fully express. In proceeding from the chapter [with which the work begins] on the Creator and on Creation, to the succeeding chapters on the Redeemer and on Redemption, on the Divine Trinity, on the Sacred Scriptures or Word of God, on the Decalogue, on Faith, on Charity, on Free-will, on Repentance, on Reformation and Regeneration, on Imputation, on Baptism, on the Holy Supper, on the Consummation of the Age and the Advent of the Lord, it seemed as if a continual blaze of new and re-creating light had been poured forth on my delighted understanding, opening it to the contemplation of the sublimest mysteries of wisdom, in a manner and degree, and with a force of satisfactory evidence, which I had never known before."
At the time when the writings of Swedenborg were thus received by Mr. Clowes there probably were not half a dozen persons in all England to whom they were known. He soon therefore began to consider that the treasure thus confided to his care was not given to be locked up in his private coffers. He determined accordingly not to disobey the Divine command by putting his light under a bushel: he soon set it on a candlestick, to give light to all around. Swedenborg himself had then just left the world; and one or two of his works had recently been translated and published by the Rev. Mr. Hartley. Mr. Clowes soon began to labour most diligently in the same way; and by degrees completed the translation into English of most of the numerous theological writings of the same honourable writer. To secure their publication, he speedily organized a society for this object among his friends at Manchester. He also, from his first reception of the truths he had thus attained, framed his discourses from the pulpit in agreement with them. He talked of them freely among his friends and acquaintance.
He held regular meetings at his house for inquiry, conversation, and reading on the same subjects; and he had communication with numerous inquirers was awakened by the rumours which were speedily spread abroad. As translations of the works of Swedenborg became accessible, societies of readers of them were formed in numerous places: and Mr. Clowes did the work of an apostle and missionary, by visiting the towns and villages round the district of Manchester, for the purpose of exhorting, instructing, and encouraging these little flocks. Very many excellent original publications also proceeded from his indefatigable pen. When, as frequently happened, the principles he had espoused were attacked, they commonly found in Mr. Clowes a most able vindicator, and one whose refutations were always as mild and winning in expression as they mere powerful in argument. He printed several volumes of most impressive sermons, in which he interprets important parts of Scripture according to the ideas resulting from the opening of their spiritual sense, yet familiarly adapted to the apprehension of the simplest minds; and most of them are introduced by ample and most valuable prefaces, explaining the principles of the interpretation, and vindicating the source from which it is derived. He was the author, likewise, of numerous other works, besides his controversial ones, all devoted to the elucidation and recommendation of the same discoveries of Divine Truth and Goodness. St one time he occupied himself in composing beautiful little tracts for children. At another he prepared new translations of the four Gospels, with elucidations of all the passages which are anywhere explained in the writings of Swedenborg, and enriched with observations of his own. His labours were finally broken off when he had nearly completed a work of the same kind on the book of Psalms.
It is not to be supposed that he could pursue this open, fearless, and undeviating course in the promotion of what he was convinced was the genuine cause of truth and goodness, without meeting with enemies, and encountering much both of public and of individual opposition. His church was always well attended, chiefly by the superior classes of the inhabitants of Manchester: but, while the whole congregation was edified and delighted by the pure and sublime representations of the Christian life which he continually set before them, a great portion never entered into, or regarded, the peculiar views of doctrine with which they were connected; and by some these, and he himself as their propounder, were, during the earlier part of his ministry, vehemently opposed. Efforts were more than once made, though in vain, to procure his suspension or removal by the bishop of the diocese. In Mr. Clowe's work entitled, Pure Evangelical Religion Restored, in the seventh chapter, is an account of his interview with the bishop of his diocese, Dr. Porteus, on occasion of a complaint respecting the doctrines he constantly taught; and nothing can be more open and manly than the statement which Mr. Clowes made to the bishop on that occasion. And the bishop dismissed him without even the smallest censure.
By degrees all opposition gave way before the most convincing of demonstrations,--that of his pure, affectionate, and truly Christian life. The fruits of his doctrines, as evinced in his own person, mere undeniably most excellent. Thus, when he had attained the fiftieth year of his ministry, an elegant piece of sculpture, the work of the great master, Flaxman, himself a New Churchman, was erected by subscription in his Church, the most active promoter of which was a gentleman who had formerly carried a complaint of his doctrine to the bishop, but who, though he never was a convert to his sentiments, became so impressed with the excellences of his character as to be most desirous thus to perpetuate the record of them as an example to posterity
Mr. Clowes died on June 4, 1831, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
A Memoir, written by himself, and enriched by a number of his letters, appeared in London in two editions; the second edition was published in 1849. A more comprehensive life, the work of Theodore Compton, Esq., based chiefly on materials collected by the late George Harrison, appeared in 1874. To these two works we refer the reader for lists of Mr. Clowes's writings.
NOTE 219.
WILLIAM COOKWORTHY.
Mr. W. Cookworthy, was one of the earliest receivers of the New Church doctrines, and was personally acquainted with Swedenborg. Mr. Provo, in Document 263, p. 539, gives some account of Cookworthy's interview with Swedenborg; further particulars respecting this interview are contained in Document 315. Mr. Hartley, besides, relates that the translation of "Heaven and Hell," which he saw through the press, was begun and carried on to a considerable extent by Mr. Cookworthy, but was afterwards revised by himself. He states also that Mr. Cookworthy was at the whole expense of the publication. He is also mentioned as the translator of the first quarto edition of the "Doctrine of Life," which was published at Plymouth in 1763.
Mr. Harrison, the translator of some of Swedenborg's works into English, communicated to the Rev. John Clowes in 1825 a Memoir of Mr. Wm. Cookworthy,* from which Document 315 is derived. An extract from this "Memoir" was published in the "Intellectual Repository" for 1825, pp. 439-447. From this we gather the following particulars respecting Mr. Cookworthy's life and character:
* This biographical notice was published in 1964 under the following title: "Memoir of Wm. Cookworthy, formerly of Plymouth, Devonshire. By his Grandson."
Mr. Wm. Cookworthy was born a member of the religions Society of Friends, at Kingsbridgre, in Devonshire, in the year 1704. At the age of fourteen he lost his father, who was engaged in the weaving business, and who, though an industrious man, left his family with but slender provision for their maintenance. On his death young William was bound an apprentice to a chemist and druggist in London, and at the close of his apprenticeship he set up business for himself at Plymouth. From the time of his apprenticeship to the time of entering on the duties of married life in his thirtieth year little is related. It is, however, known that he enriched his mind from the stores of science and polite literature, for both of which his relish was keen and his capacity good. Thus qualified, his company was eagerly sought in the most accomplished society; besides, he was well acquainted with, and was himself one of, the literati, who at that time flourished at Plymouth.
In his forty-first or forty-second year he lost his wife; and he felt her loss so keenly, that he withdrew from Plymouth, and lived in seclusion at Lowe for twelve months. From this retirement he returned changed in appearance and manner to that of a plain Quaker. Still he met his old acquaintances as usual, and again resorted to the meeting of that little knot of literary friends, with whom he had before associated. Indeed, so far were his new habits from secluding him from the rest of the world, that he cultivated an intimate acquaintance with some of the first gentlemen and the most scientific men of the day. Smeaton, the engineer, was a regular inmate of his house, while engaged in the erection of the Eddistone Light-house. Captain Cook, Dr. Solander, and Sir Joseph Banks were his guests, before they sailed from Plymouth on the Captain's first voyage to the South Sea. And to Thomas Pitt, afterwards the first Lord Camelford, and to the it was observed, that whoever was in Mr. Cookworthy's company, never came out of it without being the better or the wiser for having been in it.
Such were the charms of his conversation, when his mouth was open all were listeners; and though his fondness for chemical subjects would lead him occasionally into details, interesting only to persons skilled like himself, yet even then his object was to improve others, or promote science, and not to display his own superiority.
In course of time he became a minister of the Gospel in the religious society of which he was a member. But though his sermons were always affectionate and full of encouragement to the humble and broken-hearted, his efforts in this office by no means corresponded with the inexhaustible powers displayed by him as a teacher in private conversation.
On his first opening one of Swedenborg's works the book was soon thrown down in a fit of disgust. From some cause or other, not remembered, he was induced to make another trial; and from that time forward he became gradually more and more convinced of the soundness of the views which Swedenborg had taken of scriptural truths. So convinced, indeed, did he become of the truth and utility of his works, that, as already observed, he, in part, translated from the original Latin the treatise on "Heaven and Hell," and, under the revision of the Rev. T. Hartley,1 had it printed in 1778, in a quarto volume, by the Friends' bookseller, James Phillips, of George Yard, Lombard Street, London, at his own expense.
In the "Memoir" referred to above we read further, "He translated, for publication, a smaller Treatise, styled, The Doctrine of Life. His Latin copies of both these Treatises bear marks of the translator's toil, in scattered ink-spots."
Hartley was a man of the same affectionate disposition, and the same enlarged views of religion; yet from a nervousness of constitution, more inclined to shrink from society and discussion. They corresponded some time before they were personally acquainted, until the repeated interchange of sentiment had produced such a union of soul, that when they met for the first time, they flew into each other's arms, as if they had been old acquaintances.
Shortly before Swedenborg's death, they both visited him at his lodgings in Clerkenwell. Particulars of this interview are described in Documents 263 and 315.
As he was approaching the time of his removal into the other world, Dr. Gasking called on him one day, as a professional man, as well as a friend, and asked him how he was. He replied, "I'll tell thee how I am, Gasking,--no doubts-no fears--but a fall and certain assurance that I am going where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." On Dr. Gasking's return to the parlour, the usual enquiry took place, "How do you find my father?" "Find him," said the doctor, "so as I would give all I am worth in the world to change places with him."
Near his close, he said, that "death was like putting off an old coat to put on a new one;" and after noticing that he was sinking comfortably, he died quietly in his own house on October 17, 1780.
Mr. Cookworthy was the discoverer in England of the ingredients of porcelain, and the founder of the British Porcelain Manufacture, as is proved in the following publication: "Relics of William Cookworthy, discoverer of the Cornish China-clay and stone, about 1755; founder of the British porcelain manufacture, about 1760; and an eminent minister of the Society of Friends," collected by John Prideaux, London, 1853.
NOTE 220.
PROFESSORS ALEXANDER GERARD, ROBERT HAMILTON, AND ROBERT TRAILL
Of the three Scotch professors, who were recipients of the letters from Dr. Messiter contained in Document 260, only the first, viz. Prof. Alexander Gerard, seems to have been known to fame. The two other professors belonged to well-known and highly honoured Scotch families, which have produced several philosophers, men of science, and theologians; yet concerning the particular Prof. Robert Hamilton, who filled the chair of divinity in the University of Edinburgh in 1769, we could find no information in Scotch bio-graphical collections. The only thing which we came across was a sermon of a certain Robert Hamilton, D. D., preached at the interment of J. Boydell, London. Equally unfortunate were we our researches respecting Prof. Robert Traill, who filled the chair of divinity in Glasgow University in 1769. He is probably the author of the following sermon which we have likewise come across, viz. "The Qualifications and Decorum of a teacher of Christianity considered, a sermon preached before the Synod of Aberdeen in 1755 by the Rev. Robert Traill, minister of the Church of Scotland."
Alexander Gerard, an eminent divine of the Church of Scotland, was born on February 25, 1728. In 1750 he became assistant professor of philosophy in Marischal College at Aberdeen, and in 1752 ordinary professor. He was member of a literary society at Aberdeen, consisting of Drs. Blackwell, Gregory, Reid, Campbell, Beattie, and others, which met regularly every fortnight during the winter, when the members communicated their sentiments with the utmost freedom, and received mutual improvement from their literary discussions, and hence originated those well known works:
Reid's "Inquiry into the Human Mind," Gregory's "Compartive view," &c., Gerard's "Essay on Genius," Beattie's "Essay on Truth," and Campbell's "Philosophy of Rhetoric." In 1759 Gerard was ordained a minister of the Church of Scotland, and in the following year was appointed professor of divinity in Marischal College, and about the same time took the degree of D. D. He continued to perform the several duties attached to his offices till 1771, when he resigned the professorship, together with the church living, and was preferred to the theological chair at King's College, a situation which he held till his death on February 22, 1795. His biographer states, that "Dr. Gerard's attainments were solid rather than brilliant, the effect of close and almost incessant study, and a fine judgment." He was the author of an "Essay On Taste," 1759, enlarged in 1780; "Dissertations on the Genius and Evidences of Christianity," 1766, "Essay on Genius," "Sermons," two vols., and of a posthumous work entitled "The Pastoral Care."
NOTE 221.
DR. WILLIAM SPENCE.
W. Spence, M. D., published in 1792 a book entitled "Essays in Divinity and Physic," etc., which on pp. 38 and 39 contains the information concerning Swedenborg which he collected from Mr. Christopher Springer121 one of his patients, and Dr. Messiter2 (Document 262). According to Mr. R. Hindmarsh he attended the first public meeting of friends of the New Church, which was held on December 5, 1783; afterwards, in 1785, he was one of the four gentlemen who undertook the publication of the Apocalypsis Explicata (Document 309, p. 806), and on p. XXII of the above-mentioned work, he is spoken of its editor. He was a friend of C. F. Nordenskjöld, and the latter in his Considrations Gnrales, &c. p. 304, left the following record of their friendship: "One day, having perceived the unsuitableness of my present lodgings, and being myself most anxious to leave them, he called upon me, and said, 'I have a proposition to make to you. I do not wish you to stay any longer here, and I offer you in my house my table and a sleeping room, and for the reception of our visitors we shall use the same drawing-room. As to my terms, they are as follows,' &c. I thanked him for his obliging offer, to which I had nothing to object, but I told him that I could not leave my host without paying him twenty guineas which I owed him for my lodgings. 'Nothing else?' he said, 'I shall pay them.' He did so, and in this manner I became an inmate of his house.
His society was the more agreeable to me, as we professed the same religion. Nevertheless, it was not as a pure act of charity that he asked me to live with him; but he had also a personal interest in it, and the tranquility of his house depended on this arrangement. This change of lodgings was of the greatest benefit to me, and afterwards also I was the recipient of the most disinterested services on his part, which were the beautiful fruits of his benevolent character. When I left his house, I left London. He is dead, and I expect to find him where I shall be able to tell him that to the last breath of my life in this world, my heart has been imbued with gratitude towards him. May he be blessed among the blessed." The letter which C. F. Nordenskjöld received from his friend Wadström in 1785, and to which reference is made on p. 807, was directed to him "Care of Dr. Wm. Spence." In his care also C. F. Nordenskjöld left the MS. Of the Apocalypsis Explicata, and the copy of those MSS. which he had brought to England (see Document 309, p. 807).
In a letter dated May 2, 1822, which C. F. Nordenskjöld addressed to Dr. Im. Tafel, he says of Dr. Spence that "he was a physician and apothecary, an extremely honest and benevolent gentleman, although his means were limited."
Dr. Spence belonged to that party of the New Church friends in England, who are designated non-separatists, to which also the Rev. John Clowes and others belonged. On this account he was sharply criticized by those who were of a different opinion from himself, as appears from the following extract of a letter addressed by Henry Servant227 to Mr. James Glen of Demarara, South America, dated London, June 1, 1806, and which was published in the "Monthly Observer" for 1857 (p. 419), "Mr. Spence is a native of Scotland, and I believe still living, he is also by profession a surgeon, but I never considered him a true recipient. He has constantly opposed an external separation from the Old Church, and strenuously maintained the high-flown doctrine of Episcopacy, and that no other than such as were regularly ordained by a bishop were orderly qualified or authorized to preach the doctrines of the New Church. You will perhaps be able to trace some outlines of the eccentricity of his character in his 'Essays.'"
The preface to these "Esssys" contains Dr. Spence's arguments on the relation between the Old and the New Churches; in which he uses very strong language in respect to his "spiritual brethren the 'separatists.'"
It is not known when Dr. Spence departed this life; according to Mr. Servant he was still living in 1806.
NOTE 222.
BENEDICT CHASTANIER.
"Mr. Chastanier," says Henry Servant in a letter addressed to Mr. James Glen, dated June 1, 1806,* "is a native of France, and studied surgery and pharmacy in the Hotel Dieu at Paris, where he resided many years; after which he came to England, and used to visit the society of readers in the Temple. He has been a zealous recipient, and instrumental in publishing many of the works in French and English; he has been thrice married, but through indiscretion has experienced many unpleasant vicissitudes in the natural world, and is at this time in every languishing state."
* See "Monthly Observer" for 1857, p. 419.
Whether Chastanier became acquainted with the doctrines of the New Church in England or France is not known with certainty. According to C. Lenning in his Encyclopdie der Freimaurerei (Encyclopdia, of Freemasonry), and R. C. Acerrellos in his work entitled Die Freimaurerei (Freemasonry), Benedict Chastanier and other friends of the New Church in France formed even during Swedenborg's lifetime a society of Theosophic Illuminati (Illumins theosophes), with seven degrees. This society was organized into a kind of Masonic lodge in the spirit of the New Jerusalem. Dr. A. Kahlin his work entitled Nya Kyrkan, &c. (Part IV, p. 83), whence we derive this information, adds, "Chastanier, who imported this new order into England, thereupon issued a call to the free-masons in which he invites them as friends of truth and humanity to make common cause with the receivers of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, and to work with them for the attainment of a common goal. In his 'Plan for a New Jerusalemite Journal' (Plan d'un Journal Novi-Jrusalmite) in pointing to the Exegetic Philianthropic Society of Stockholm, he says among other things, 'Would that for the good of mankind the whole earth were covered by societies of the same nature; then we should soon see the golden age return among men, of which we announce now the dawn. You Masons, who are free and open-hearted, and whom I have the honour to call my brethren, your respectable society is made for the very purpose of emulating them! More than ever you search now after the truth; witness the circulars which the Great Orient (Grand Orient) of Paris sends out in every direction. Truth presents itself to you. The works of Swedenborg develop it for you in all those emblems, symbols, and figures, of which the exterior only is known to you.
Will you do nothing in order to know also their interior? It is in your interest therefore to contribute to the success of my plan.'"
C. F. Nordenskjöld wrote to Dr. Im. Tafel on May 2, 1822, among other things, "When I undertook in 1783 a journey to London at my own expense, the society for the spread of the new light was then very small, and consisted only of ten or twelve persons. Mr. Chastanier, a physician and apothecary, and a Frenchman by birth, inserted an announcement in one of the papers to this effect, 'All those who read the theological writings of Swedenborg and know their value, will please to assemble in No. [62] of [Tottenham-Court Road].' In this immense town there were only three or four persons who reported themselves; whether there were only so few, or whether only these had read the advertisement, is not known. I arrived a few weeks after this announcement and found there eight persons. Among these was Mr. Peckitt,229 about sixty-three years old, who had been a physician and apothecary, a man without children [see Note 229], and rich enough to live on the interest of his money; Wm. Spence, physician and apothecary, an extremely honest and benevolent gentleman, although his means mere limited."*
* Dr. Im. Tafel's German "Documents concerning Swedenborg," Vol. IV, p. 195.
Among the French works published under the editorship of Chastanier, are the following: (1) "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine," London, 1752; it contains a dedication to the King of France, and an address to the Clergy of France. (2) A French translation of the treatise on the "Intercourse between the Soul and the Body," London, 1782; it contains an address by the translator to the universities of his native country, and a translation of Mr. Hartley's preface to his English translation of the same work: at the close of the work he appended French translations of several of Swedenborg's letters, and a summary of the little treatise on "The White Horse;" the volume closes with a prospectus for printing the MSS. works of Swedenborg. In 1756 he published a work entitled: (3) Tableau analytique et raisonn de la Doctrine Cleste de l'glise de la Nouvelle Jrusalem (An analytical and rational summary of the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Church). This work is dedicated to the Archbishop of Paris. In the preface he communicates the results of his investigation into the charge of insanity raised against Swedenborg by Mathesius and J. Wesley; these results are contained in Document 270, p. 609. The work closes with a French translation of Shearsmith's affidavit before the Lord Mayor of London respecting Swedenborg's death, accompanied by Mr. R. Hindmarsh's remarks on the same subject.
In 1787, finally, Chastanier published (4) his Journal Novi-Jrusalmite, the first number of which contains a French translation of the "Doctrine of Life;" the second number that of the "Doctrine of the Lord;" the third that of the "Last Judgment;" and the fourth that of the "Continuation concerning the Last Judgment" In the fourth number Chastanier promises to publish in monthly numbers the treatise on "Conjugial Love," and the "True Christian Religion;" but these monthly numbers do not seem to have appeared. Chastanier also, as appears from Document 309 (p. 808), was appointed an associate-editor of the Apocalypsis Explicata.
In 1790 Chastanier made a public avowal of his belief in the Doctrines of the New Church, in the columns of the "New Jerusalem Magazine" (p. 112), where he says among other things, "Having by the greatly signalized blessings of the God of all mercies; towards a poor undeserving mortal, been one of the first here in London, who fully accepted the message of Emanuel Swedenborg, I make no sort of scruple or the least hesitation to authorise you, in full length to publish my name, as one of the greatest admirers of all and every particular doctrine therein contained, and would to God I could in all justice acid also--one of the strictest followers of these doctrines of immortal truth. But short as ever I may come in this respect, the God who inspired him with all these heavenly doctrines, even the blessed Jehovah Jesus, the only God of all things, knoweth however, that it has ever been, since the happy moment in which these writings fell into my hands, the very wish of my innermost soul, to frame the rest of my life upon the truly beautiful pattern of the true Christian." In the same letter Chastanier also stated that for twenty-six years he had been an inhabitant of Great Britain, showing that he emigrated to England in 1774.
In the same magazine (p. 226) Chastanier furnishes some additional testimony respecting the last moments of Swedenborg, which is contained in Document 269, pp. 578 et seq.
About this time Chastanier made an exhaustive study of that portion of the "Spiritual Diary" which Wadström brought to England in 1788. He translated portions of it from the Latin, and took a faithful copy of the Latin original, which was of great assistance to Dr. Im. Tafel, when he began the publication of the original text also, in 1843. The fate of the MS. of the "Spiritual Diary," which Wadström left in his hands, is related in Document 309, pp. 811-813.
About this time the French revolution broke out, and after the political atmosphere had become cleared, Chastanier resolved to return to his native country, and to work there for the spread of the New Church.
Accordingly we find him in 1801 in Paris, whence, on November 11, he addressed the following letter to a friend of the New Church in Sweden: "Having been obliged for a long time--during the prevalence of the great revolution which has shaken the whole of Europe--to suspend my periodical publication of the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg in the French language, and as I do not know whether there are still any of the members of the Exegetic Society, which existed while I published in London my Journal Novi-Jrusalmite--I write to you for information on this subject, as I require it for carrying out my proposed plan, which induced me in the month of May of the present year to return to my native country....
"I desire to inform you that under the Divine Providence I have resolved to resume my periodical publications, and to begin with the inestimable Apocalypsis Revelata, to which I shall prefix a translation of the excellent preface by our respected friend John Clowes, and at the close I propose to append the letter which the same Mr. Clowes addressed to Mr. Smith, the member of Parliament--in order to refute thereby the abuse which the ex-Jesuit Abb Barruel in his frivolous book on 'Jacobinism,' which was printed four or five years ago in London at the expense of the English nobility, poured forth with a genuine Roman Catholic priestly acerbity against your countryman Emanuel Swedenborg, and his enlightened writings. I have already received much encouragement in my native country for the publication of such and similar works, and I hope that Sweden, our author's native country, will not be the last to interest itself in breaking asunder the emptiness of the shades of night, and in spreading truth and light... I have great pleasure in informing you that here in town I am associated with a number of scholars and literati, some of whom may be justly regarded as writers of the first rank, both in respect to their scholarship and their purity of language."
The whole of this project seems, however, to have miscarried, for as we have already seen, Mr. Henry Servant wrote in 1806, that Chastanier "through indiscretion had experienced many unpleasant vicissitudes in the natural world, and was at that time in very languishing state." The difficulties under which Chastanier then laboured, and which induced him to part with the MSS. of Swedenborg which were in his hands, are described in Document 309, p. 812; where reference also is made to his melancholy end. On this subject Mr. R. Hindmarsh in the "Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church" (p. 30) gives us the following additional information:
"Mr. Chastanier, it appears, met with his death some years afterwards in the following unfortunate manner. Having gone to Scotland on some particular business, he designed to have returned to London by the Packet, and went on board with that intention. But the wind at that time being unfavourable, the Captain delayed sailing till a change should take place. On this Mr. Chastanier told the Captain, that he would in the meantime visit a friend at a little distance, and return to the vessel the next day. He accordingly quitted the Packet, leaving his bundle behind him, but never returned. It was cold, snowy weather; and it is supposed he either lost his way, or was overtaken with drowsiness, and sat down on the road-side to rest himself, where he was found the next day frozen to death. The Captain sailed when the wind was fair, and brought his bundle to London, which was afterwards delivered into the hands of Mr. Sibly,267 of Goswell Street." From the "New Church Quarterly," Vol. I (p. 67 et seq.), it appears that "the Old man was then nearly eighty years old."
NOTE 223.
PETER PROVO.
In publishing for the first time in full the "Testimony collected by Peter Provo," which constitutes Document 263, the Rev. S. Noble says in the "Intellectual Repository" for 1836, "Mr. Peter Provo was a respectable gentleman of the medical profession, which published the work called 'Wisdom's Dictates.'"
Mr. Hindmarsh in his "Rise and Progress" (p. 14) alludes to his intercourse with Mr. Provo in the following manner: "In one whole year after my reception of the Writings, I found only three or four individuals in London, with whom I could maintain a friendly intercourse on the subjects contained in them. In 1783 invited these few to hold regular meetings for reading and conversation in my house in Clerkenwell Close, not far from the spot where Swedenborg died. These meetings were continued every Sunday morning, till it was thought expedient to endeavour to make them more public. I was possessed of all the writings in Latin, and these were constantly on the table before us, while we read in them illustrations of the Holy Word, and those extraordinary relations in reference to the state of things in another life, which so peculiarly distinguish our Author's theological works from those of every other man.
In this manner we went on for a time, our first meeting consisting of only three persons, viz. Mr. Peter Provo, of the Minories, repothecary; Mr. William Bonington, of Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, clockcasemaker; and myself of Clerkenwell Close, printer."
The Rev. Edward Madeley in a footnote to the above gives the following few additional particulars respecting Mr. Provo: "Mr. Provo afterwards resided at Pentonville. He is mentioned by Mr. Noble in his Appeal, (second edition, p. 207,) as having supplied him with an original anecdote respecting Swedenborg therein printed. Other anecdotes collected by him were printed in the 'Intellectual Repository' for January, 1836, p. 27, Mr. Provo published a work, called 'Wisdom's Dictates,' printed in the year 1789, and advertised to be sold at Mr. Chalklen's, 49, Gracechurch Street. Swedenborg also, at one time, lived in the Minories, prior to residing in Clerkenwell."
The full title of Provo's book is as follows: "Wisdom's Dictates: or a collection of maxims and observations concerning Divine and spiritual truths; and that process of regeneration, or renewal of life, from the Lord, which only is truly saving. Extracted from the works of various spiritual writers, and particularly from those of Emanuel Swedenborg," London, printed for the author, 1789. In the Introduction the author states that "the collection itself is a summary of a twelve years' enquiry and research after Divine knowledge, in the acquirement of which the writer spared neither costs nor pains." The book consists of 911 most pregnant maxims and observations; and in the appendix follows a list of Swedenborg's works, with a succinct and clear statement of the contents of each. The book was published anonymously.
That Mr. Provo was a precise and accurate scholar is proved by the fact that the London Printing Society instructed him to translate for their use from the Latin the "Doctrine concerning the Lord," and also that concerning the "Sacred Scripture;" of which the former was published in 1786. Mr. Provo, also, with the assistance of Mr. R. Hindmarsh, translated the "New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine," which was published in 1784 at the joint expense of the London and Manchester Printing Societies (see Hindmarsh's "Rise and Progress," Appendix, p. I).
NOTE 224.
E. Bergström.
Eric Bergström, who kept the King's Arms Tavern, in Well-close-square, London, was personally acquainted with Swedenborg, and he furnished Mr. Provo223 with the anecdotes and information contained in Document 263, nos. 1-11.
In 1779 he was chosen one of the trustees of the Swedish Church in London in company with Messrs. Charles and Andrew Lindegren,117 and Counsul Claes Grill;112 and from the Anteckningar rrande Svenska Kyrkan i London (Records of the Swedish Church in London), which were published by Mr. G. W. Carlson in 1852, it appears that he obtained more votes than Mr. Andrew Lindegren and Consul Claes Grill (see p. 86), thus showing in what estimation he was held by his Swedish countrymen in London. He was a member of the church-council (kyrkordet) as early as 1769, when his name appears affixed to a memorial in which the Swedish congregation explain the working of the old constitution under which they were organized (p. 230). In 1771 his name appears subscribed to a document in which the Swedish congregation of London requests the Bishop of Skara to nominate to the King Mr. A. Mathesius as their pastor (p. 247); thus showing that Mr. Bergström was disposed in a very friendly manner towards the Rev. A. Mathesius,118 concerning whom the afterwards testified to Mr. Provo that he became insane while in the pulpit (Document 263, no. 9, p. 538). His name appears signed to an additional document (p. 249), in which the Swedish congregation petition the King in favour of the Rev. A. Ferelius,119 requesting him to appoint him to a vacant pastorate in West Gothland.
NOTE 225.
ROBERT HINDMARSH.
Mr. Hindmarsh's name will for ever remain united to that of the Church of the New Jerusalem, and also to the writings of the New Church; for he was the foremost man in the organization of the separate New Church, and his name as publisher and printer, and partly also as author is borne by most of the New Church writings which were printed in the last century. He ranks also as one of the most illustrious ministers of the New Church, and as one of its principal champions and defenders in Great Britain; while from his work entitled the "Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church," he must be regarded as its first systematic historian.
As Mr. Hindmarsh's name is so intimately connected with the printing of Swedenborg's writings, both in the original Latin and in English translations, his name is of frequent occurrence in Document 313, which contains a chronological account of these writings. But he appears also as a collector of important testimony in respect to the life and character of Emanuel Swedenborg, (1) by interrogating at various times Shearsmith and his wife, at whose house Swedenborg resided during his last stay in London (see Document 266);
(2) by refuting the slander that Swedenborg in his last moments retracted his writings (see Document 269, pp. 572-579); and (3) by interrogating, in company with Mr. Beatson, Brockmer, the Moravian, on whose story J. Wesley based his charge of insanity against Swedenborg (see Document 270, pp. 601-607).
The following biographical sketch we base chiefly on the sermons preached to the memory of Mr. Hindmarsh by the Rev. S. Noble, and the Rev. M. Sibly (see "Intellectual Repository" for 1835, pp. 397-417); and on the autobiographical notices respecting himself, which occur in the "Rise and Progress," and also in a MS. account of the "Early history of the New Church" which he furnished in 1796 to the Society Pro Fide et Charitate in Sweden, With which the Editor of these Documents became acquainted during his stay in Sweden in 1869.
Mr. Hindmarsh was born November 8th, 1759, at Alnwick in Northumberland. His father, Mr. James Hindmarsh, either was then, or soon afterwards became, one of the travelling preachers in the connection of the celebrated Mr. Wesley.238 At an early age young Hindmarsh was sent to the School founded by Mr. Wesley, for the education of the children of his preachers, at Kingswood, near Bristol. Of this establishment his father, who was a man of literary attainments, was the master for several years. The remarkable "clear-headedness," as Mr. Noble says, the ardent love of knowledge, and the extraordinary facility of acquiring it, by which he was ever distinguished, there soon became conspicuous, and he was regarded by the masters as a principal ornament of the establishment. Though he left the school soon after he had attained the age of fourteen years, he had acquired great proficiency in both the Latin and the Greek languages, and in some branches of science,--the Latin in particular, he could not only read, but also write with facility. To this he afterwards added a considerable acquaintance with the Hebrew. When he was removed from school he was placed with a printer in London, which business he afterwards carried on for many years on his own account.
"In the beginning of the year 1782 (being then about twenty-two years of age)," Mr. Hindmarsh writes to the Society in Sweden, I first had the happiness to see the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, which I instantly perceived to be of heavenly origin, and therefore as naturally embraced and delighted in them, as the eye embraces and delights in objects that reflect the golden rays of the sun. From that time I began to search out other readers of the same writings in London, in order to form a society; but in one year I only found three or four besides myself.
In 1783 I invited those few to hold meetings in my house in Clerkenwell, which were continued every Sunday [see Note 223] till it was thought expedient to endeavour to make our meetings more public [see Note 228]. We then took apartments in the Temple (one of our Inns of Court), and by advertisements informed the public, that a society was formed for the purpose of promoting the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, as laid down in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg and at the same time invited any other persons who were friendly to the same truths to join us. This had its effect, end in a short time our Society which was called the Theosophical Society increased in numbers.
"Some of us were now desirous of having public worship; but the major part of the Society could not be prevailed on to give their consent to such a measure, thinking the proper time not yet come. A few of us, however, thought otherwise, and were disposed to avail ourselves of that liberty of conscience, which as Englishmen we had a right to exercise. Accordingly a place of worship was hired in Great East Cheap, and on Sunday, January 27, 1758, Divine service was performed therein, and a sermon preached to a very crowded audience, in defence and recommendation of the new doctrines by my father James Hindmarsh, who had been convinced of their truth about two years before that time. Notwithstanding all the opposition, which was made to the church there established, it became instrumental in making the New Jerusalem doctrines more public in England, and in producing many societies in different parts of the country."
Meanwhile, however, Mr. Hindmarsh performed some good work for the Church by the publication of the following works of Swedenborg, partly at his own expense: (1) Clavis Hieroglyphica, 1784; (2) Expositio Summaria Sensus Interni librorum Propheticorum et Psalmorum: these two works were printed at his own expense; (3) Apocalypsis Explicata, 4 Vols. 4to., 1785-1790; concerning the publication of this work, see Document 309, pp. 808 et seq.; (4) Qustioines Novem de Trinitate, &c. 1786. The following works were both translated and published by him in the English language: (5) Nine Queries respecting the Trinity, 1786; (6) The Last Judgment, 1788; (7) The White Horse, 1788; (8) Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church, 2nd edition, 1789; (9) Continuation concerning the Last Judgment, 1791; (10) A Hieroglyphic Key, 1792; (11) A general Explication of the Decalogue, from the Apocalypse Explained, 1794. In 1785 he published (12) The Treatise on Influx, third edition.
The following works he translated, but did not publish: (13) The Summary Exposition of the Internal sense of the Prophets, 1800; (14) The Coronis, 1511. Most of these works it will be seen mere published between 1784 and 1790, while Mr. Hindmarsh was himself full engaged in the printing business. In 1757 he was appointed Printer Extraordinary to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. In 1790 he appeared in the new character of an author. We now quote from Mr. Noble:
"Mr. Hindmarsh having seen the accomplishment of a darling wish of his heart,--the commencement, in a. distinct and visible form, and with every prospect of perpetuity, of the Lord's New Church in Great Britain--next turned his attention to the diffusion of the heavenly doctrines, and the building up of the Church thus commenced, by other means and began to appear, for this purpose, in the character of an author. In the year 1790, he commenced a monthly periodical, bearing the title of the New Magazine of Knowledge concerning Heaven and Hell; which title he altered, after some time, to that of the New Jerusalem Journal. This work contains many excellent and satisfactory elucidations of the doctrines of the New Church, chiefly from his own pen, and must, no doubt, have been a great help to many at that time. The receivers of the heavenly doctrines were, however, as yet too few to support a periodical work; and so after having subsisted under both titles for three years, he was obliged to relinquish it.
"But now an occasion arose which called forth his latent powers in their full extent, and exhibited him as one of the most powerful polemic writers, in any cause, which the world had ever seen. That this is not too high an encomium, I apprehend that every person, whether friend or foe, will admit, who has ever read his Letters to Dr. Priestley in Defence of the New Church. On occasion of the opening of a place of Worship for the New Church in Birmingham, where Dr. Priestley then resided, in the year 1791, that celebrated philosopher and sectarian thought proper to publish a work which he entitled Letters to the Members of the New Jerusalem Church; with the view, of course, of convincing them that their doctrines were erroneous, and to induce them to relinquish their pure faith for Unitarianism. The success of Dr. Priestley's numerous other writings in advancing Unitarianism, had caused him to be esteemed as a giant in controversy; yet this mighty giant appeared no more than a puny dwarf in the hands of Mr. Hindmarsh. Such, certainly, must be the judgment of every one who has compared the two works. Never was there witnessed, in any discussion whatever, complete demolition of every one of an adversary's arguments, than was effected by Mr. Hindmarsh for those of Dr. Priestley.
Well might the discomfited champion of Unitarianism in all other instances so impatient of rebuff, retire, as he did, as silently as possible, from a field in which he had reaped nothing but disgrace. He had entered the field with sufficient flourish, and had avowed his determination to return again to the charge, with seeming eagerness for the as being in preparation: but when he had once seen it, he took care never to rouse such an antagonist again."
After the beginning of the present century Mr. Hindmarsh, according to Mr. Sibly, relinquished the printing business, and for some time, engaged in business as a stock-broker; but being inexperienced in the artifices practised by those who are usually engaged in the line he was then pursuing, he found himself, after a time, to be a loser; but although the losses were not legally binding on him, yet he paid the whole. He thus came out from among them with clean hands and a pure heart; although the sacrifice he made left him a poor man in comparison with what his circumstances in life and been before. Mr. Noble continues:
"During the antecedent part of his life he had occasionally filled the pulpit; but he always expressed a disinclination to undertake the regular teaching of the truths of the New Church in this manner. However, having seen it advisable to withdraw altogether from secular business, he retired in 1810, to Manchester; where some liberal admirers of his talents warmly soliciting him to engage regularly in the ministerial office, he saw it his duty to comply. A large and neat chapel was built for him in Salford, where the copious variety of brilliant truths which ever flowed with ready elocution from his tongue, speedily attracted many admirers, and drew together a considerable congregation. In this way he laboured for about fifteen years, ever active in the duties of his office, and rendering valuable services to the now rising New Church, both as a most effective missionary and a stationary preacher. He also was eminently qualified for usefulness as a teacher, by his talent for conversation and oral discussion, in which few men were his equals. At length about 1826 he finally withdrew into retirement. His leisure he employed in important literary labours.
"His other published works have been rather numerous. The most admired of them, after his Letters to Priestley, is his Vindication of the New Church, in answer to a far more slanderous assailant, Mr. Pike, a Baptist minister, of Derby. Here again we behold him riding on the white horse, the invincible bow of pure doctrine in his hand, and going forth conquering and to conquer.
All his other works partake of the same character; which is equivalent to saying that they all possess great merit."
The last work on which he was engaged before his death, is his "Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church in England, America, and other parts," which was published in London in 1861. A full list of his works is contained in the "Intellectual Repository" for 1835, pp. 420 and 421.
Mr. Hindmarsh died on March 2, 1835, in the seventh-sixth year of his age.
NOTE 226.
RICHARD SHEARSMITH.
Richard Shearsmith, of Coldbath Fields, London, was a peruke-maker, and at his house Swedenborg lodged from July or August, 1771, until his death, on March 29, 1772 (Document 269, p. 577). Mr. Hindmarsh,225 who, during his residence at 32 Clerkenwell Close, from 1783 to 1793 employed Shearsmith in the way of his profession, and consequently had a good opportunity of knowing him, says respecting his character in the "Rise and Progress" (p. 21): "Mr. Shearsmith was not attached to any religious sect of professing Christians; but appeared to be a plain, simple, and upright man, assenting to the religion of his country as he found it established, yet acknowledging and respecting the good among other denominations, without mixing with any of them. A character of this description was perhaps the most suitable that Swedenborg could have selected for a landlord; and having no prejudices for or against any particular Society, or any particular tenets of a Society, he was always ready candidly and honestly to speak the truth, whenever called upon to answer questions relative to his venerable and illustrious lodger."
Mr. Noble says of Mr. Shearsmith (Document 270, p. 599), that "he conversed with him in 1812," and that "he died a few years afterwards, at about the age of eighty-four."
NOTE 227.
HENRY SERVANT.
Mr. Noble, in recording the departure of Henry Servant into the spiritual world, says in the "Intellectual Repository" for 1816 and 1817, p. 515, that "he was one of the last remaining individuals who remembered the person of Swedenborg."
He furnishes the following additional particulars respecting him: "Mr. Servant was descended from a respectable family in the south of France, a branch of which fled to England, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, to preserve the freedom of their religious sentiments. He had himself been from his youth a sincere seeker after religious truth, and had undergone severe anxieties in consequence of not being able to obtain the satisfaction which he wanted but at length meeting by apparent accident with one of those parts of the second volume of the Arcana, which were published in English at the same time as the Latin original, his former doubts were instantly removed, and the light of truth shone at once into his mind, bringing with it a clearness of conviction which was never afterwards obscured, but was more and more illustrated to the day of his decease." Mr. Noble then describes more his meeting with Swedenborg as contained in Document 265, p. 552, and says in addition, "Mr. Servant, as a member of the New Church, was, in London, one of the earliest promoters of its doctrines having been, many years since, engaged in the publication of the 'New Jerusalem Magazine,' a work which contains much interesting and useful information."
Respecting his share in conducting that Journal, Mr. Servant wrote, on February 16, 1804, in a letter to Mr. James Glen of Demerara, South America (see "Monthly Observer" for 1857, p. 213), "As a recipient of the inestimable Writings of the Lord's faithful scribe and messenger, Emanuel Swedenborg; and impressed with a due sense of their vast importance, I have endeavoured according to the best of my ability to make known the glad tidings of the Lord's Second Coming; for which purpose, about the year 1790, I was appointed by Mr. Tulk,228 Mr. Wadström,36 and other co-recipients, to act as managing Editor of a periodical work, entitled, 'The New Jerusalem Magazine.'" On August 15, 1805 (p. 313), he continues: "In the publication of this work I was much opposed by several both clergy and laity; but I was determined to persevere as long as I was able, and I deem it as one of the most satisfactory events of my life that I was enabled through the Divine Help in consociation with a few others, to become a humble instrument in disseminating the truths of the New Dispensation in various parts of Europe, America, Sierra Leone in Africa, and I believe in Bengal, in the East Indies."
Mr. Servant was closely befriended by Mr. C. B. Wadström,36 of whom in another letter dated London, June 1, 1806 (p. 418), he gives the following sketch: "His person was above the common stature, his manners and address amiable and engaging; he wrote and conversed in several languages, understood music, and in drawing and mechanical arts few excelled him.
To this I must add, that he was a true philanthropist, had travelled much both in Europe and Africa, and, in consequence of his engaging address and manners, his company was courted by the higher ranks of society. I knew him well, as he lodged at my house twelve months, and favoured me with much of his company and friendship, and it was by his means that I obtained those valuable letters which passed between Swedenborg and Dr. Beyer, and also those from General Tuxen, and other MSS. inserted in the 'New Jerusalem Magazine,' and which are not to be met with in any other publication."
In conclusion we quote the following words of Mr. Noble: "Mr. Servant, as a true Christian, endured with patient and pious resignation his share of those trials and sufferings, which are so highly conducive to regenerate life. He was beloved and respected by his relatives and friends, to whom his exemplary mildness and humility had endeared him. He died on August 23, 1817, in his seventy-sixth year.
NOTE 228.
J. A. TULK.
Mr. Hindmarsh introduces Mr. Tulk to his readers in the "Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church" (p. 14) in these words: "Afterwards [i.e. in 1783] John Augustus Tulk, Esq., of Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, a gentleman of independent property, joined our little Society, and by his zeal, ability, and judgment, added strength to our hands. It was now agreed to call a public meeting of all the friends and readers of the Writings in London, of whom we had any information; first, that we might become better acquainted with each other; and secondly, to unite our forces, and make known to the world that we could no longer in conscience conceal from their notice. Our first public meeting was accordingly fixed to be at the London Coffee House on Ludgate Hill, were we met, five in number, at 5 o'clock on Thursday evening, December 5, 1783. But finding, when we were assembled, that no private room could be allotted to our party, we immediately adjourned to the Queen's Arms Tavern, now St. Paul's Hotel, where we had a room to ourselves, and drank tea together. The following persons were present on this occasion, viz. Mr. John Augustus Tulk, Mr. Peter Provo,223 Mr. Wm. Bonington, Mr. Wm. Spence,221 of 17, Great Mary-le-bone Street, Surgeon, and myself."
For a long time afterwards Mr. Tulk took an active share in all the efforts which were made in England to make known the writings of Swedenborg, and to establish the New Church. From Document 309, p. 806, we learn that he was instrumental in printing the original edition of the work entitled the "Hieroglyphic Key," in 1784. Mr. Hindmarsh also states that he paid for the printing of the first English edition of the "Summary Explanation of the Prophets and Psalms," in 1800. Mr. Tulk also purchased from Mr. C. F. Nordenskold the MS. copies of Swedenborg's Index to the Arcana Coelestia, and to the "Apocalypse Revealed" (see Document 309, p. 808), and the former he published at his own expense in 1813, and the latter in 1815. Mr. Tulk, likewise, prepared the extensive Index to the "Apocalypse Explained," which is now printed with that work, and which he presented to the Swedenborg Society in 1826 (see Report for 1826, p. 6). He was also a liberal contributor both to the London and Manchester Printing Societies.
On p. 322 of his "Rise and Progress," Mr. Hindmarsh writes: "It is a further source of gratification to find, that accurate translations of the Works into French, by J. P. Moet, late of Versailles, including all the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, except Apocalypsis Explicata, with some of his Philosophical Works, have been purchased of his widow by an English gentleman; that the manuscripts, in forty volumes, are now in London; and that, in all probability, the printing of them will shortly be commenced on the Continent. The name of the individual, who has made this generous effort for the advancement of the cause of Divine Truth, without any expectation of having his expenses repaid, though he himself is unwilling to be spoken of in this way, ought not to be concealed from the Church or the Public. It is JOHN AUGUSTUS TULK., Esq., of London, a gentleman of great property, an original member of the Church in London, and one of the most intelligent and cordial recipients of the new doctrines in Great Britain."
Mr. Wadstrom wrote concerning him to C. F. Nordenskold in a letter dated February, 1794, "Mr. Tulk is, as he has always been, kind and courteous; he takes care of his estate, and enjoys good health. He has five children. His eldest pretty daughter is now nearly grown up. He has lately come into a good deal of property from a brother who died."
Mr. Tulk was a frequent contributor to the various magazines of the New Church, beginning with the "New Jerusalem Magazine" in 1790, of which he was one of the owners, and continuing his contributions to the "Aurora" in 1800, and the "Intellectual Repository:" from its beginning in 1812. His articles range over a large area.
The last papers from his pen appeared in the "Intellectual Repository" for 1830, where he wrote under the signature of "P. S. R. P." (Park Street, Regent's Park). His former contributions to the "Intellectual Repository" were signed "L," and "Lausanne en Suisse." His last letter to the Swedenborg Society, in which he expresses his best wishes for its success, is dated Brussels, February 24, 1842.
NOTE 229.
HENRY PECKITT.
The name of Henry Peckitt, Esq. is intimately connected with that of the early history of the New Church. Mr. Hindmarsh mentions him as one of those who repaired to the London Coffee House on December 5, 1783, in order to make the acquaintance of fellow-receivers of the New Church (concerning which see Note 228). He says on this subject in his "Rise and Progress," "Another gentleman, Mr. Henry Peckitt, of 50, Old Compton Street, Soho, a retired Apothecary, went to the London Coffee House, and after we had left it, in hopes of joining our company; but hearing no tidings of us there, although we had left word at the bar where were gone, returned home without seeing us." On p. 18 he continues, "Mr. Henry Peckitt also, who had been disappointed in meeting us the former week, now joined us, and brought with him a rich harvest of information concerning the personal character, circumstances, and habits of the great Swedenborg. This information he had carefully taken down in writing with a view to its being preserved for the gratification of those who, like him, might hereafter regard every little anecdote of his life, that could be depended upon for its truth and accuracy, as a most precious relic. Being myself in possession of all the particulars alluded to, I take this opportunity of giving them to the public, in Mr. Peckitt's own words, from the original manuscript deposited in my hands upwards of forty years ago." The text of Mr. Peckitt's testimony constitutes Document 264.
Mr. Servant wrote to Mr. James Glen on June 1, 1806 (see "Monthly Observer" for 1857, p. 419), "Mr. Peckitt is a very worthy character, he was brought up a surgeon, but has retired from business many years. In the former part of his life he studied the mystic writers, particularly Jacob Behmen (Boehme40), Madame Guion, and others of that class; but when he saw the superior light, he gladly received it, although at times tinctured with the colouring derived from his former studies. He is an antiquarian, and astronomer, and a lover of natural history, understands the Hebrew and Arabic languages, and has a valuable museum of curiosities in his house, which he is very fond of shewing to his friends.
About ten years ago he married a second time, a young wife, by whom he has a son now living. I have been lately informed that he is near the verge of quitting the stage of mortality, but perfectly resigned to his exit."
C. F. Nordenskjöld, in a letter addressed to Dr. Im. Tafel on May 2, 1822, says concerning Mr. Peckitt, AA few weeks after my arrival in London in 1783, I met at the house of Mr. Chastanier,222 Mr. Peckitt, a gentleman about sixty-three years of age, formerly a physician and apothecary, a man without children [in 1753], and rich enough to live on the interest of his money."
The editor of the "Monthly Observer" adds to Mr. Servant's account, "Mr. Peckitt died in 1805. He took an active part in the early affairs of the Church. He was President of the First Conference ever held, which was in Great East Cheap, London, from the 13th to the 17th of April, 1789; and he was present at those held in 1790 and 1792."
From Document 309, p. 808, it appears that "the expense of publishing the Apocalypsis Explicata was ultimately defrayed by Mr. Peckitt; being in good circumstances he relieved his friends, Messrs. Spence, Adams, and Hindmarsh from their share of the responsibility." While the Apocalypsis Explicata was being printed in 1785, Mr. Peckitt, as one of the Editors, had in his possession the Manuscript of Vol. II, when fire broke out in his neighbourhood, and consumed his own house. The particulars of the remarkable preservation of the MS. volume are described by Mr. Hindmarsh in Document 287, pp. 712 et seq. In the same Document Mr. Hindmarsh described Mr. Peckitt's library which he lost by the fire, in these words, "Mr. Peckitt's Library consisted of many thousand volumes in every branch of science, which had been accumulating for some years; besides a rare collection of mystical books, to which he was known to be very partial, before his acquaintance with the writings of Swedenborg. But these latter had already considerably weakened his attachment to the mystic authors; and the loss which he now sustained by the fire, had the happy effect of weaning his mind still more from their abstruse and erroneous sentiments. The books consumed on this occasion could not have been less, it is said, than a full waggon-load."
Concerning the MS. of the Apocalypsis Explicata, which had remained in the possession of the Peckitt family, see Document 309, pp. 809 et seq. The MSS. and papers of Mr. Henry Peckitt, which were connected with the New Church, were conveyed by his son to the Swedenborg Society, in whose Library they are now kept.
NOTE 230.
J. J. GARTH WILKINSON.
James John Garth Wilkinson, the editor and translator of Swedenborg's scientific and philosophical writings, is the eldest son of James John Wilkinson, of Durham, and of Harriet Wilkinson, ne Robinson, of Sunderland. He was born in Acton Street, Gray's Inn Lane, London, on the 3rd of June, 1812. He was educated by John Charles Thorowgood, at Mill Hill and Totteridge, Herts, till he was about sixteen, and then was apprenticed to Thomas Leighton, Senior Surgeon to the Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was introduced early in Life to the Writings of Swedenborg; by his mother's brother, George Blakiston Robinson, whose wife was the daughter of Mrs. Shaw, whose testimony respecting Swedenborg is recorded in Document 266, p. 554. His uncle and the late Mr. William Newbery were instrumental in enlisting Dr. Wilkinson's sympathies in the work of making known the truths of the New Jerusalem. As early as 1839 he became a member of the Committee of the Swedenborg Society, and remained one for a long time; he also, with the Rev. T. C. Shaw and Mr. John Newbery, formed a Sub-Committee for promoting the issue of all the Swedenborg Society's publications on a standard page. He prevailed upon the Society to publish a translation of the "Divine Love and Wisdom" in Icelandic, and was associated with Mr. Jn A. Hjaltalin in his translation of the work.
In 1843 he published his English translation of Swedenborg's Regnum Animale, with an elaborate introduction, wherein he sets forth the claims of Swedenborg's scientific works to the attention of modern science. In 1845 and 1546 he edited an English translation of the OEconomia Regni Animalis, prepared by the Rev. Augustus Clissold, and added a most valuable introduction. In 1846 he edited in the original Latin the works described in Document 313, from no. 61 (p. 928) to no. 66 (p. 930), under the title Emanuelis Swedenborgii Opuscula qudam argumenti philosophici. The same he published in an English translation in 1847, under the title "Posthumous Tracts." In the same year he edited in the original Latin the work described in Document 313, no. 57 (p. 925), under the title, OEconomia Regni Animalis, Transactio III. In that year he published also an English translation of Swedenborg's work on the "Infinite" (see Document 313, no. 46, p. 912). And in 1852, he saw through the press his English translation of Swedenborg's work on the "Generative Organs."
These works, with the exception of the translation of the Regnum Animale were published under the auspices of the Swedenborg Association, a society instituted for the purpose of printing the scientific and philosophical works of Swedenborg, which has since been merged in the Swedenborg Society.
Of Dr. Wilkinson's own works the following require to be specially mentioned: (1) "Emanuel Swedenborg: a Biography," London, 1849. This up to the present time is the only biography written of Swedenborg, which is worthy of its subject. (2) "The Human Body and its connexion with Man," London, 1851; a prose poem of singular beauty and power. (3) "On Human Science, good and evil, and its works; and on Divine Revelation and its works and sciences, A London, 1876. This is a most powerfully written book, in which a merely sensual science is arraigned before the justice-seat of God, and where its shortcomings and pretensions are mercilessly exposed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated American critic, says respecting Dr. Wilkinson in his lecture on "Swedenborg the Mystic," which is printed in his volume entitled "Representative Men." Swedenborg printed his scientific works in the ten years from 1734 to 1744, and they remained from that time neglected: and now, after their century is complete, he has at last found a, pupil in Dr. Wilkinson, a philosophic critic, with a co-equal vigour of understanding and imagination comparable only to Lord Bacon's, who has produced his Master's buried books to the day, and transferred them, with every advantage, from their forgotten Latin into English, to go round the world in our commercial and conquering tongue. This startling re-appearance of Swedenborg, after a hundred years, in his pupil, is not the least remarkable fact in his history. Aided it is said, by the munificence of Mr. Clissold, and also by his literary skill, this piece of poetical justice is done. The admirable preliminary discourses with which Dr. Wilkinson has enriched these volumes, throw all the contemporary philosophy of England into the shade, and leave me nothing to say on their proper grounds." In his "English Traits," p. 140, Mr. Emerson descants on the same theme in the following strain, Wilkinson, the editor of Swedenborg, the annotator of Fourier, and the champion of Hahnemann, has brought to metaphysics and to physiology a native vigour, with a catholic perception of relations, equal to the highest attempts, and a rhetoric like the armoury of the invincible knights of old. There is in the action of his mind a long Atlantic roll, not known except in deepest waters."
"Frazer's Magazine" for 1857, alluding to this tribute of Mr. Emerson, says (Vol. LV, p. 178), "Mr. Wilkinson, who probably knows more of Swedenborg's writings of the scientific period of his life than any other man in England, supplies us with some valuable and beautifully written criticism of them.
If all Mr. Wilkinson's writings were as good as the following passage, me should not be disposed to dissent from Emerson's estimate of him as holding a, place in the front rank of English authors:-"In the works that we are considering, as indeed in all that Swedenborg wrote, there is an unconcealed belief, from the first, in God and in His providence; and such a belief as results, not from meditation only, or from sceptical second thought, but from the religious atmosphere of Christendom. On this head our author was a child to the end of his days, and never questioned the earliest instructions which he had received from his father and mother, whom he honoured to the extent of believing that thought can never begin ab origine, as though it had no human parentage. He knew that every truth and mental possession has its genealogy, which it can no more deny or question with propriety than we ourselves can dispense with our natural ancestry, by proceeding from whom we start from the vantage ground of previous manhood, and may be originators in our line, instead of fruitlessly repeating the past creation for every fresh individual. Especially did he know that no Christian man can, without sheer impuissance, begin out of Christianity. Accordingly, Swedenborg took full advantage of the religion of his time, and the belief in a personal God was with him the foundation of all sciences. Nothing is more plain than that only in so far as man is in the image of God, and can think like God, can he give the reason of anything God has made .... Swedenborg's observations of facts are as superior to the ordinary foundations, as his method is better than the procedures which are still in vogue. His power of remark is more physiognomical than that of any previous writer with whom we are acquainted. Other collectors of facts rushed at once into dissection and violence, and broke through the speaking face of things in their impatience. He, on the other hand, proceeded cautiously and tenderly, and only cut the skin when he had exhausted its looks and expressions. Be was the most grandly superficial writer who had then arisen--a rare qualification in its good sense, and one which gives the benefit of travel to the sciences, enabling them to take liberal views of their materials'" (Emanuel Swedenborg: a Biography, pp. 44, 53).
NOTE 231.
SWEDENBORG'S PORTRAITS.
The original portraits of Swedenborg which are in existence are as follows:
1. The copper-engraving in Vol. I of the Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, published in 1734. Concerning this picture Cuno, who was personally acquainted with Swedenborg, says, "If any one desires to have an idea of Swedenborg's looks, he will find his portrait in his work entitled: Opera Philosophica, &c.; which portrait although finished forty years ago by the skilful engraver Bernigroth, is still perfectly like him, especially in respect to the eyes which have retained their beauty even in his old age" (see Document 256, p. 453).
2. A painting on copper said to represent Swedenborg. It was bought by the editor of these Documents in Sweden in 1868. On the frame, which was very old, was written "Swedenborg, 1744." This painting was damaged, and restored by an unskilful artist, by which it has lost much of its value. This painting before it was retouched served as a basis to a portrait of Swedenborg by Aug. Tholander, a Swedish artist living in Moscow, in which he represents Swedenborg in the act of leaving his room for a walk. This picture was published in 1876 by Messrs. Milton Smith & Co. 76 Goswell Road, London.
3. The portrait in the Grand Hall of the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. This portrait, according to Mr. Eichhorn of the Royal Library, one of the greatest connoisseurs of Swedish paintings, was painted by Fried. Brander, who was in Stockholm between 1760 and 1770. This portrait accordingly represents Swedenborg when he was between seventy and eighty years of age. It was presented to the Academy of Sciences by Swedenborg himself, and is the best known of all his portraits. It was engraved by Martin is 1782, (see no. B below,) and his engraving has been copied many times since. The editor of these Documents had a photograph taken of the painting in 1868, and had it retouched by a competent artist. This photograph has since been published in London by Mr. James Speirs of 36 Bloomsbury Street, and also in Hamburg by Ohm.
4. The portrait in the National Gallery of Gripsholm. On the back of the original painting is written: "This portrait was requested from Swedenborg by Senator Höpken.
Afterwards it was presented to the Gallery in the Castle of Gripsholm by Count Carl Gyldenstolpe, Chamberlain (fwerste-Kammarjunkar) from Ulfsa." Carl Eduard Gyldenstolpe, who died in 1852, was married to a daughter of Eleonora Wilhelmina von Höpken, daughter of Senator von Höpken, and he seems to have obtained the picture by inheritance. According to Eichhorn (see above in no. 3) it was painted by Kraft, the elder, who came to Stockholm in 1768. The picture was consequently painted between 1768 and 1770. A copy of this picture painted in oil was bought in America by Sampson Reed, Esq. of Boston. The editor of these Documents had another copy in oil taken of it in 1870, at the request of Dr. Forbes of Brooklyn, by whom it was presented to the American Swedenborg Society. He has also in his possession a photograph of the original painting, retouched by a first-class artist, which has since been published by Mr. James Speirs of 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, and also by Ohm in Hamburg.
5. The portrait of Swedenborg, which is at present in the custody of Daniel Lamotte Esq., Wilmington, the State of Delaware, United States of America. This portrait was conveyed to America by Mr. F. W. Schaff through the agency of Mr. C. D. Arfwidson, the American Consul in Stockholm, who bought it on behalf of Mr. Schaff from Carl Deln, the well-known New Church printer and publisher in Stockholm. Respecting the origin of this portrait Mr. Deln made the following statement to Consul Arfwidson: "After Swedenborg's decease his house was bought by a tinsmith of the name of Lemon; and the portrait which hung in Swedenborg's bed-chamber was sold to me before the year 1790." In a letter to Mr. J. A. Brodell of New York, who acted as a mediator between Mr. Schaff and Consul Arfwidson, the latter gentleman furnished the following additional particulars. "The portrait has been three times copied in oil by Mr. Way, Professor Breda, and Professor Sandberg, and it has been lithographed once." Mr. Schaff imported the picture in order to have an engraving taken from it, and under a promise which Mr. Brodell obtained from him he afterwards sold it to the Central Convention of the New Church, which existed in America until about 1853. The Central Convention placed the picture in the custody of three trustees, of which Mr. Daniel Lamotte, Sen. and the Rev. W. H. Benade of Pittsburg, are the survivors. On a close comparison of this portrait with nos. 3 and 4, this seems to be the best likeness of Swedenborg, as it contains the essential features of those two portraits, and reconciles their apparent discrepancies. Artistically no. 4 is the best of the three pictures, but no. 5 is the best likeness.
6. Martin's engraving of Swedenborg. Concerning this picture General Tuxen wrote in a letter to C. F. Nordenskjöld, dated March 24, 1782: "Senator von Höpken has been kind enough to send me by post the fine engraving of our late friend, as soon as: it was published. It is a remarkable likeness, and does great honour to Martin." This picture presents the same features as no. 3, and was probably taken from it; although Mr. Servant in a letter to Mr. James Glen (AMonthly Observer" for 1857, p. 419) states that it is taken "from the only original picture of him, now in the possession of the Exegetic Society of Stockholm." The copper-plate was brought to England by Wadström,36 and Wadström presented it to Mr. Servant.227 It afterwards came into the possession of Mr. W. Newbery, who obtained it from one of the daughters Mr. Servant.
7. The picture painted by John Hindmarsh, about 1785, from Swedish and English prints, probably Martin's, and corrected by Mr. Shearsmith's226 description of his person and dress, so as to form, in his estimation, a most perfect likeness. Concerning this picture, which was recognized as Swedenborg's likeness by Servant, and which Dr. Messiter pronounced "A very striking likeness," see Document 265, nos. 10 and 11.
8. Another portrait purporting to be an original likeness of Swedenborg is in the possession of Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson,230 who obtained it from Sweden through Madame Ehrenborg,110 and according to her statement it had been in the possession of C. J. Schnherr the Councillor of Commerce, concerning whom see Notes 302 and 303.
9. In 1875 a portrait of Swedenborg was discovered in London, which bears traces of originality. It was probably painted in London during Swedenborg's stay in that city. Artistically it does not rank very high. It is now in the possession of John Bragg, Esq. of Birmingham.
Two medals have been struck in honour of Swedenborg, by the Swedish Academy, and the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm; both give a profile view of Swedenborg. The second by the Royal Academy of Sciences was struck in both silver and bronze.
NOTE 232.
FLAXMAN.
In Document 266 (p. 555) we read that when Flaxman, the celebrated sculptor, examined Swedenborg's skull at Mr. Charles A. Tulk's in the presence of Mr. Clowes and Mr. Clover he said: "How beautiful the form-how undulating the line here; here's no deficiency, Mr. Clowes."
John Flaxman was interested in Swedenborg's skull, because he was interested in his writings. He was born on July 6, 1755, at York; attended the Royal Academy from his fifteenth year, but never worked in the studio of a master. In 1782 he married Anne Denman, who exercised a most favourable influence on him and his studies. In 1787 she accompanied him to Italy, where he prosecuted his studies in Rome, and where he soon fixed the attention of the friends of art. In 1794 he returned to London, and in 1810 he became a member of the Royal Academy, and professor of sculpture. In 1820 he lost his wife, after which he led a most retired life. He died on December 6, 1826. His most famous works are his outlines to the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," which were afterwards followed by outlines to Dante and schylus. The President of the Royal Academy characterized him as a sculptor in the following language, "Mr. Flaxman's genius, in the strictest sense of the word, was original and inventive. His purity of taste led him in early life to the study of the noblest relics of antiquity, and a mind, though not then of classical education, of classic bias, urged him to the perusal of the best translations of the Greek philosophers and poets; till it became deeply imbued with those simple and grand sentiments which distinguished the productions of that favoured people. In piety the minds of Michael Angelo and Flaxman were congenial. I dare not assert their equality in Art; yet the group of 'Michael and the fallen Angel,' is a near approach to the grandeur of the former; and sanctified as his memory is by time and glory, it gained no trivial homage in the admiration of the English sculptor, whose 'shield of Achilles' his genius only could surpass."
In respect to Mr. Flaxman's connection with the New Church, Mr. Hindmarsh mentions him as a member of the "Theosophical Society for the purpose of promoting the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, by translating, printing, and publishing the Theological Writings of the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg," soon after its establishment in 1784 (see the "Rise and Progress," p. 23).
In the Report of the Swedenborg Society for 1827 we read the following statement respecting him, "Your Committee cannot speak of Mr. Flaxman here as an artist; but as a member of the New Church they feel themselves entitled to expatiate on his character and deportment. In the Reports of all the several Committees of this Society his name is found as a contributor to its funds, and as a cordial promoter of the cause. Of late years, however, he was seldom present at these meetings, through bodily infirmity; but on the last time, in 1817, when Mr. Flaxman was appointed one of the committee, he interested the Society by an affectionate and impressive address is furtherance of our great object. He was a man of amiable manners, and was beloved and respected by all who knew him."
The Times newspaper of December 8, 1826, says on this subject as follows, "Mr. Flaxman professed himself a member of the Established Church, and did not publicly associate with the congregation founded by Swedenborg, though he did not scruple to avow to his friends that he adopted, in general, the doctrines promulgated by that celebrated mystical theologian."
Mr. Noble, in animadverting upon the statement of "the times" which we have italicized above, says in the "Intellectual Repository" for 1826 and 1827, p. 438, as follows: "the steadiness of Mr. Flaxman's adherence to the principles of the New Church, was, by many belonging to the 'congregation' of that Church, abundantly known. There have long been two classes of the receivers of those doctrines in England-those who have thought it their duty to unite in the celebration of public worship in forms consonant with those doctrines, and those who, though allowing the abstract propriety of such a measure, have thought that the time had not yet arrived for carrying it with prudence into effect. If Mr. Flaxman was latterly to be numbered in this class, it was the result of untoward occurrences. When the Chapel, then called the Temple, in Cross Street, Hatton Garden, was the scene of the ministrations of Mr. Proud, Mr. Flaxman was an active member of the Committee for conducting its affairs: but, among the circumstances connected with Mr. Proud's removal to York Street, were some, we regret to say, which gave a wound to the tender feelings of Mr. Flaxman, and occasioned his withdrawal. His attachment to the principles of the New Church, however, continued undiminished. In the Reports of the London Society for Printing the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, his name is to be seen in the list o the contributors to its funds, from its first formation till his decease; and a few years since he was present at its Anniversary Meeting, when he made an impressive speech in commendation of the object of the Society."
Mr. Noble concludes, "We confess that we are desirous to establish the claim of the New Church to Mr. Flaxman; and we are happy at being able to do so beyond the possibility of question; for any Church would be proud to rank among her members a man, whose talents and whose virtues made him an ornament to human nature."
NOTE 233.
CHARLES A. TULK.
Mr. Charles Augustus Tulk, who is mentioned in Document 266 (p. 555) in connection with Mr. Flaxman,238 and Mr. Clowes,218 was the son of John Augustus Talk, mentioned in Note 228. From a "Brief Sketch of the Life, Character, and Religious Opinions of the late Charles Augustus Tulk" by Mrs. Hume-Rothery, which was published in 1850 in Boston, we extract the following particulars respecting him:
Mr. Tulk was born in June, 1786, at Richmond, Burrey. After finishing his education in Westminster School, he was entered for the bar, but never prosecuted the profession, partly from disinclination, and partly because his father's large fortune rendered his application to a profession unnecessary in a pecuniary point of view. In September, 1807, when only one and twenty, he married Susannah Hart; a union of pure attachment which resulted in deep and lasting happiness. Twelve children were born of this union; seven of whom, five sons and two daughters, survived their father. Mr. Tulk was for many years a member of the House of Commons. He was first elected for Sudbury in 1821, and sat for Poole at a later period; he at last relinquished his seat, because his close attendance in the House seriously affected his health. While in parliament, he took a zealous and active, though not prominent, part in affairs: the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, the Reform Bill, and various measures for improving the condition of factories, were among those in which he took the greatest interest; though on no subject did he make long or frequent speeches. He was also for many years all active county magistrate. He first acted as such, in the county of Middlesex, in 1836; and, from that period till 1847, when ill-health compelled him to relinquish Iris exertions, he was invariably among the foremost in every work of usefulness which fell within the range of his magisterial and other duties.
In 1810, Mr. Tulk became one of the Founders of the London Society for Printing and Diffusing the Works of Swedenborg, to which he remained a subscriber till his death. Up to 1843 he was a member of the committee of the society, and frequently presided, not only at the committee meetings, but also at the general annual meetings of the society. His addresses to the society on these occasions have been spoken of by some of his hearers in terms of high admiration. In the year 1832, he published a small work entitled "Family Instruction," embodying in a simple form some of the instruction he was in the habit of imparting to his family circle. In 1842 he published a very brief Exposition of the Lord's Prayer, intended as the forerunner of a work on this subject, contemplated and commenced by him, but not quite finished at the time of his death. In 1843 he published a small book of Aphorisms, treating on spiritual subjects, or, rather, on subjects viewed in a spiritual light. But the work to which he devoted most labour was entitled "Spiritual Christianity;" part of which was published in numbers, in the years 1846 and 1847. The publication was interrupted by increasing ill-health; and its subsequent completion was prevented by his death, which took place in January, 1849, when he was sixty-three years of age.
The orthodoxy of some of Mr. Tulk's views was questioned so early as 1827 by Mr. Noble in the "Intellectual Repository;" Mr. Tulk's rejoinders, or rather those of one of his disciples, being contained in Goyder's "New Jerusalem Magazine" for 1827. To this controversy we refer those of our readers who desire to study Mr. Tulk's views, and their relations to the doctrines taught in the writings of Swedenborg. More recently the views taught by Mr. Tulk have been set forth in a work by the late Abraham J. Le Cras of Jersey, which was published, after his death, in 1871, under the editorship of the Rev. E. D. Rendell; it bears the title, "A Compendium of the Doctrines of Spiritual Christianity."
NOTE 234.
SWEDENBORG'S SKULL.
We extract from Mr. Hindmarsh's "Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church," the following relation respecting the skull of Swedenborg, which is adverted to in Document 266, p. 555:
"In the early part of 1823, a report passed through many of the public papers of the day, concerning the skull of Swedenborg, which was stated to have been abstracted from the vault of the Swedish Church in Prince's Square, Ratcliffe Highway, where he was buried, and to have been preserved as a relic by one of his disciples till his death, when it was again restored to its original situation in a solemn and formal manner. The substance of this report, which first appeared in the Times newspaper of March 31, 1823, is as follows: Some time after the interment of Emanuel Swedenborg, 'one of his disciples,' it is alleged, came over to England, and by bribing the sexton of the Swedish Chapel, near Ratcliffe Highway, obtained possession of the head of 'the departed saint' (!!), with which he decamped to his own country, where he preserved it as a precious 'relic' to the day of his death: when it coming into the possession of his relatives, with some papers explaining to whom it had belonged, they, 'alarmed at the consequences which might follow such an unhallowed violation of the tomb,' transmitted it to this country, to be restored to its original situation; which, the story relates, was accordingly done 'with due solemnity, in the presence of the elders of the Church.'
"The tale is certainly sufficiently ridiculous, and calculated, with all who might believe it, to throw unmerited obloquy on the whole body of the admirers of Swedenborg's writings. Letters correcting the misrepresentations were therefore immediately sent to several of the papers in which the story had appeared, by Mr. Noble,237 Mr. Hawkins,239 and a friend who takes the signature of Philalethes; and it is but justice to the editors of the papers to say, that they were inserted by most of them with the greatest readiness. As, however, it is still probable that many may have seen the misrepresentation, who have not seen the correction, it is proper to mention it here.
"The facts, which gave rise to the fabrication, are briefly these: About the year 1790, a foreign gentleman,* who held the absurd tenets of the old sect of the Rosicrucians, and who, of course, though he believed Swedenborg to have been a great philosopher, by no means embraced his theological sentiments, became acquainted with some of the admirers of Swedenborg's writings, in London. Having been invited one day to dine with a warm friend of those writings, the foreigner after dinner affirmed, that such a philosopher as Swedenborg must have discovered the secret which the Rosicrucian adepts pretended to possess, by virtue of which he could protract big existence as long as he pleased.
He therefore contended, that Swedenborg had not died, but being desirous to put off the infirmities of age, had renewed his existence by means of a precious elixir, and had withdrawn to some other part of the world, causing a sham funeral to be performed to avoid discovery. It was in vain that the friends of the New Church present opposed this wild suggestion, as not only contrary to reason is general, but to every principle of truth developed in Swedenborg's writings: the pseudo-philosopher repeated his asseverations, and declared his conviction, that if access could be bad to the coffin, it would not be found to contain the body of the supposed deceased. In the warmth of the dispute, the others agreed to adopt this mode of satisfying the unreasonable stranger: they all set off immediately to the church; where having arrived, they, with the sexton's assistance, soon found means to accomplish their purpose.
The first thing they did was to descend into the vault under the church, where the body was deposited in two coffins, one within the other, the company being provided with torches. The outer coffin, which was of wood, was then opened: afterwards the top of the inner coffin of lead was sawed across the breast and the upper part taken off, so as to leave the head and face open to inspection. The gentlemen present mere satisfied with the sight, and the visible proof that the mortal remains of that great man were actually is the precincts of the grave, and not, as the Rosicrucian vainly imagined, translated to some unknown part of the world still animated with the breath of life, while the appearance of death was only assumed by a sham funeral, and the interment of a certain quantity of ponderous matter, instead of a real human body of flesh, blood, and bones. Thus the incredulity, or rather the credulity, of the Rosicrucian was made evident, while he himself stood confounded by rt direct view of Swedenborg's mortal remains. No violation, however, was offered to them by any of the visitors: they closed the coffin as well as they could, and departed.
* Gustavus Broling in his Anteckningar under en Resa i England (Notes during a journey in England), from 1797-1799 (pp. 47-51), relates that this foreign gentleman was an American.
"It may he proper to remark here, that two visits to the tomb of Swedenborg were made on this occasion. The first was by two or three persons, accompanied by the foreign gentleman, who professed the Rosicrucian tenets, as above described: the second was made a few days afterwards by five or six persons, members of the New Church, who were desirous of seeing the body, and of witnessing the state of preservation which it maintained after an interval of seventeen or eighteen years since it was first deposited in the vault.
Of the persons who attended on this second occasion I (Robert Hindmarsh218) was one; having a curiosity to be gratified, and a desire to see whether any decomposition of the elements of the body had begun to take place, and if it had, how far it had proceeded, while the external air had been excluded for so many years, by means of a well-soldered leaden coffin. The first thing I did, after descending into the vault with a lighted taper is my hands was to examine the enter coffin, and to satisfy myself, that it did in reality contain the body of the greatest man living or dead. The inscription upon the lid of the coffin, with his name, the day of his decease, and the age he had attained, afforded sufficient evidence, that the contests were indeed the remains of Emanuel Swedenborg. On removing the lid, sad the upper part of the leaden coffin within, which had been sawed through at the time of the first visit, to enable the beholder to see the face of the deceased, we all stood for a few minutes in silent astonishment to observe the physiognomy of that material frame, now prostrate in the hands of death, which had once been the organ of so much intellect, so much virtue, and such extraordinary powers of mind, as, together with the peculiar privilege he enjoyed of holding undoubted and long-continued consort with angels and happy spirits, distinguished him from all other men, and placed him high above the rest of his kind. The features were still perfect, the flesh firm, and the whole countenance, as the only remaining criterion whereby to judge of the fidelity of the painter who had taken his portrait while living, yielded the most satisfactory proof, that the artist had been particularly successful in handing down to posterity the true likeness of a man, whose celebrity in philosophy, but above all, in theological pursuits, though already great beyond that of his contemporaries, is only now beginning to excite the admiration of mankind, and must inevitably increase in every succeeding age of the world. after surveying him a while, I placed my hand on his forehead; and I then observed, that the lower part of the nose gave indication of approaching decomposition: but whether this was the effect of air admitted to the body since the first visit, when the leaden coffin was opened, or whether the slow ravages of time, independent of such adventitious cause, had previously began the work of pulverization, to which all material bodies are subject, I was not able to determine. This, however, is certain, because it was afterwards found to be true, that the whole frame was speedily reduced to ashes, leaving only the bones to testify to future inspectors of the coffin, that a man had once lived and died.
"To return to the story of the abstracted skull.
After the two visits above described, things continued in the same state till the year 1817, when the vault was opened to receive the remains of the Baroness Nolcken, the lady of the Swedish Ambassador;* on which occasion Lieutenant or Captain Ludvig Granholm, of the Swedish navy, being present, and amusing himself either before or after the funeral, with reading the names on the coffins deposited around, came to that of Swedenborg; when observing the coffin lid to be loose, it occurred to his thoughts, that if he could possess himself of the skull, he might perhaps dispose of it profitably to some of the admirers of his principles, whom he had heard to be numerous in this country, but of whom and their sentiments, he had so little knowledge, as not to be aware that they are the last people on earth to form an attachment to relies, or to fall into any of the mummery of saintcraft. He accordingly contrived to withdraw the skull from its coffin, and, wrapping it in his handkerchief, he carried it off unperceived. He afterwards applied to Mr. Hawkins, and to other members of the Church (see Document 266, p. 555), in hopes of finding a purchaser; but was disappointed: and at his death, which happened in London not very long afterwards, the skull came into the possession of the Minister of the Swedish Church. Its re-interment was occasioned by the interference of a lady of high rank in Sweden, who, hearing that it had been removed from the coffin, wrote to a gentleman in London, to request that he would procure its restoration to its original situation; which was accordingly done in the most private manner.
* Baron von Beskow in his Biography of Swedenborg, read before the Swedish Academy, p. 143, in referring to the account given of this occurrence in the "Intellectual Repository," Vol. VI, 1823, p. 471 et seq., says, "We have quoted this account in order to direct attention to several circumstances connected therewith, which are less truthful. The Swedish minister in London, in the year 1817, was Baron von Rehausen who died in 1822, and whose widow survived him in Sweden, where she died. His predecessors Adlerberg and Briuliman were unmarried. That the vault should have been opened on account of the burial of the wife of some Swedish minister is just as incredible, as that the church-keeper should have allowed any one to take away Swedenborg's skull; and further that a Swedish officer should have taken possession of it unlawfully, for the purpose of selling it." By referring to the Anteckningar rrande Svenska Kyrkan i London, we find that Baron von Nolcken, who was the Swedish minister in London from 1763 to 1793, died in Richmond in England on December 16, 1812, and that his wife, Baroness Mary von Nolckon, an English lady, died July 2, 1816, in her seventy-second year. We read also that both were buried in the vault of the Swedish church. It is therefore not at all improbable that the body of Baroness von Nolcken in 1817 was deposited in the vault of the Swedish church. In the account as published in the "Intellectual Repository," the name of the lady whose body was buried in the Swedish church in 1817, is not given, and hence Baron von Beskow was led to infer that Baroness von Rehausen was meant.
"Thus all the circumstances in the fabricated narration, which tend to throw ridicule on the admirers of Swedenborg's writings, are utterly untrue."
In a footnote the Editor of Mr. Hindmarsh's work, the Rev. E. Madeley refers to the "Notices respecting the Swedish Church in London," by G. W. Carlson, published in Stockholm, in 1852, where the particulars respecting the re-interment of the skull are related in the following manner [on p. 119]: "The protocol of the meeting of the church-committee, on July 4, 1819, contains the following interesting communication, viz.: "The pastor asked permission to present to the members of the committee the skull of the late Assessor Swedenborg which (concealing the name of the offender) had been stolen from the coffin in the vault of the church about a year and a half ago, and accidentally discovered by the pastor, when it was just going to be taken to Sweden, to enrich some private or public collection of curiosities. As it had been taken out of the coffin once, the pastor thought it ought rather to be preserved as a curiosity by the church than to be carried abroad; and as it was well known that resident Swedenborgians had long wished to obtain the same, and offered considerable sums to acquire it privately, the pastor desired it to be kept carefully, that it might not again fall into improper hands.' The following marginal note was afterwards appended, 'The skull was afterwards deposited again in the coffin, after a cast had been taken of it. J[ohn] P[eter] W[hlin].'"
Mr. Carlson added the following footnote to this account:
"Dr. Whlin in his Dagslndor* (Ephemerals) published in Norrkping in 1846 declares the thief to have been a. Captain, named Ludvig Granholm, who, at a burial in 1817, had gone down into the vault and abstracted the skull. But not succeeding in selling it, the same was, after his decease, found in his domicile. However, upon an examination made some years ago, on the strength of some scientific tests,** doubts have arisen whether the skull deposited in the coffin was the right one."
* Dagslndor; anteckningar under vistandet i England och Frankrike ren 1818-1832 (Ephemerals, or Notes during a stay in France and England, from 1818-1832).
** On scientific grounds it is maintained that the skull which is now in Swedenborg's coffin is not a male, but a female skull, and that it is much too small to have been his.
From a son of Dr. Whlin, who was living in Stockholm in 1869, the editor of these Documents obtained the following additional particulars: Dr; Whlin, in his ministerial capacity, and thus bound to secrecy, was called to a person on his deathbed, who confessed that he had taken Swedenborg's skull out of his coffin, on the occasion of a burial; that Swedenborg's hair was still on it, which fact aroused the landlady's suspicion.
After removing the hair, he desired to sell it to the sect in England; but on account of illness he was not able to execute the design. He delivered the skull to the pastor of the society. Meanwhile the matter got into the newspapers, and Dr. Whlin received an offer of L500 for it, which he indignantly declined. Soon after, on the occasion of another burial, when the vault was opened, the skull was re-deposited. At that time a cast of the skull was taken in the presence of the pastor, a member of the Nordenskjöld family, and the trustees. Only three casts were taken, with a moral obligation that their number should not be multiplied. One of these casts is in the possession of Mr. Whlin in Stockholm; another is in Frugrd in Finland, in the possession of one the branches of the Nordenskjöld family; and the third cast is in the possession, we believe, of another branch of the Nordenskjöld family in Sweden.
NOTE 235.
BISHOP FORSENIUS.
Bishop Forsenius, who requested the Rev. A. Ferelius on his return from London in 1772, to give an account of his intercourse with Swedenborg (see Document 267, p. 560), was bishop of Skara at that time. He is reputed to have been a pious and learned bishop. He was born in 1706, and died in 1788 at Brunsbo, which was formerly inhabited by Bishop Swedberg.
NOTE 236.
THE BROTHERS Knös.
CARL JOHAN Knös, whose account of a visit to Ferelius constitutes Document 267, B (pp. 562-564), was the son of Anders Olofsohn Knös, Dean of Skara, the defender of Swedenborg's doctrines (see Dr. Kahl's Nya Kyrkan, part III, pp. 39-57). He was born at Skara in 1767, and on his way to Upsal in 1784 he stopped with Ferelius in Skfde, obtaining from him his account of Swedenborg. After finishing his course at the university, he returned to Skara as one of the teachers in the gymnasium, and, after passing through all the grades of a teacher in the gymnasium, he was appointed Dean of Skara in 1825. He was reputed one of the foremost preachers of the day, although he did not publish much. He died in 1835.
"ADJUNKT" Knös, who is mentioned in Document 310, p. 851, was Olof Andersson Knös, an elder brother of Carl Johan Knös, who was born in 1756. He distinguished himself by historical investigations, and in 1786, while at Upsal, he and some other studious young men interested in history established a literary society, under the name of The Historical Society. In 1784 he was appointed an "Adjunkt" or extraordinary professor in the university; which position he retained until 1796. He died as lector of Greek in the gymnasium at Skara in 1804.
There were two more brothers interested in the New Church: ANDERS Knös who was Dean of Wnga and GUSTAVUS Knös, the youngest of the brothers born in1773, who was professor of the oriental languages at Upsal. "In a work entitled: Samtal med mig sjelf om werlden, menniscorna och Gud (Talks with myself about the world, mankind, and God)," says his biographer, "his sympathies with Swedenborg's doctrine appeared so openly and manifestly, that it created considerable stir and comment, so that the author was compelled to write another critical work entitled: Frsk at utreda ndgra vigtiga frgor (Attempt to explain important questions). He died the following year, in 1828.
NOTE 237.
REV. SAMUEL NOBLE.
The Rev. Samuel Noble in his work entitled, "An Appeal" (Section III, Part II), made the first systematic presentation of "Documents respecting Swedenborg," and he was also otherwise interested in bringing such documents to light. He it was who first published Provo's Testimony (Document 263); and in his "Appeal," Section III, Part IV, he subjected to a most thorough examination the Testimony which John Wesley bore concerning Swedenborg; the whole of Document 268 (pp. 564-571) which treats on this subject is introduced from Mr. Noble's work, as well as portions of Document 270, namely, pp. 599 and 610. Besides, Mr. Noble in his capacity of Editor of the "Intellectual Repository" has been instrumental in preserving important information respecting many men whose names occur in connection with Swedenborg, such as Clowes,218 Hindmarsh,225 Servant,227 and others, who are discussed in the Notes, so that both the Editor and the readers of these Documents are under many and great obligations to him. The following account of Mr. Noble's Life is taken mainly from the admirable "Memoir of the Rev. Samuel Noble," by the Rev. William Bruce, which is prefixed to the "Appeal."
Samuel Noble was born in London on March 4, 1779. His father, who was a bookseller, and the author of a work of great merit on the "Elements of Linear Perspective," died when the son was five years old. His mother, on whom the entire charge of a young family now devolved, discharged her maternal duties in an admirable manner. After receiving a good education, including a sound knowledge of the Latin language, he was apprenticed to an engraver, He subsequently attained to eminence in his art, and was engaged on many of the principal architectural works of his time. His tastes and talents, however, were still more literary than artistic, and he was, moreover, influenced by strict religious principles, so that before long he exchanged his profession as an artist for that of a minister of the gospel.
When nineteen years of age he became acquainted with the doctrines of the New Church. Of the mode in which he was led to receive these doctrines he gives us the following account: "In a remarkable manner, some of the works containing them were brought to my hands; but I had heard some of the common calumnious reports, and began to read with much distrust and prejudice. The first book that I opened was the treatise on 'Heaven and Hell.' I read some passages near the middle; but meeting with some things that greatly contradicted my prejudiced notions, I soon began to treat it with derision, and, at length, threw it down with contempt. Getting hold, however, of some doctrinal works, I speedily became very much interested. I saw from the beginning, that every doctrine advanced must be the truth; but I had imbibed so much of the common erroneous sentiments, as to dread the thought of embracing new ones, lest, erring from the faith, the consequences should be fatal. At length, I heard that there was a place where these doctrines were preached, and I went to hear. Whether what I then heard was more suited to my state of apprehension than what I had read, or whether it be that truth spoken by the living voice has a more powerful influence than truth read in a book, I cannot say; but I went away with a full assurance, that the doctrines advanced as those of the New Jerusalem must be those of the New Jerusalem indeed. I felt perfectly convinced that there could be no danger in venturing my salvation on their truth. I solemnly and devotedly resolved to do so. I dismissed all my former obscure notions of Three Divine Persons, and the doctrines which require three distinct divinities for their support, to the winds. I cast my idols to the moles and to the bats: and all my anxieties and fears went with them.
If I was convinced on a former occasion, that the Scriptures are assuredly the Word of God, I was now made as thoroughly certain that the doctrines of the' New Jerusalem are the genuine doctrines of the Scriptures: and never since, from that hour to this, has a doubt upon that subject been able to intrude itself upon my mind."
From the time that Mr. Noble became fully convinced of the truth of the doctrines of the New Church, he became a delighted attendant on the ministry of the Rev. J. Proud,273 the eloquent preacher by whom his faith had been sealed; and cast his lot amongst the little band who formed the visible church of the New Jerusalem at that period in England. His excellent dualities soon brought him into favourable notice among the members of the church, and his abilities enabled him to become highly useful. Among many other services rendered to the cause which he so heartily espoused, he assisted in establishing, in 1810, the society now existing in London, for printing and publishing the writings of Swedenborg; and in 1812, the present periodical of the New Church in England, the "Intellectual Repository." His active zeal and useful labours materially contributed to the success of both. Of the magazine he was principal editor for twenty-eight years, and during all that period was by far the largest contributor to its pages.
In 1819 Mr. Noble accepted the unanimous invitation to become the minister of the society to which Mr. Proud used to preach, and which had become vacant by the retirement of the Rev. Dr. Churchill; although he was then successfully engaged in his secular profession, which yielded him a much larger income than he had any expectation of ever deriving from the work in which he was invited to engage. On Whit-Sunday of the following year, he was ordained a minister of the New Church, and then commenced that career of usefulness as a religious teacher and writer, which he so long and successfully pursued. The beneficial effects of his labours in his own congregation soon became manifest; and a few years afterwards, it had become so prosperous as to be able to purchase the church in Cross Street, the pulpit of which he occupied till he lost the use of his eyes', by which the society was deprived of his services.
Among the works by which Mr. Noble was deservedly raised into the front-rank of New Church theologians are the following: "The Plenary Inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures asserted" which was published in 1825. This was succeeded in 1826 by his most popular work entitled: "An Appeal in behalf of the views of the eternal world and state, and the doctrines of faith and life, held by the body of Christians who believe that a New Church is signified (in the Revelation, chap. xxi) by the New Jerusalem: embracing answers to all principal objections."
The ninth edition of this work was published in 1876. In 1846, a volume of "Lectures on Important Doctrines of the True Christian Religion," was printed by the request, and at the expense, of the Manchester Printing Society; and, in 1848, the "Noble Society" published a volume of Sermons, in which the Divine Law of the Ten Commandments is explained, according to both its literal and spiritual sense. The last work on which he was engaged was the revision of his translation of Swedenborg's work on Heaven and Hell, which on account of the loss of his sight had to be performed by the aid of kind lady friends who acted as his amanuenses.
About two years after the completion of his translation, age and infirmity brought his days on earth to a close. He died in August, 1853.
His valuable library, which contains one of the completest collection of early New Church publications, he left to the Society to which he had ministered so long, and which has since his death removed from Cross Street, Hatton Garden, to Camden Road, Holloway.
NOTE 238.
JOHN WESLEY.
The celebrated John Wesley, who bears the unenviable reputation of having been the first man who publicly raised the charge of insanity against Swedenborg, was born in 1703. In early youth he became inspired by reading the works of Thomas a Kempis and Jeremy Taylor, and felt himself called to a special work in the church. He afterwards studied theology at Oxford, and after being ordained a deacon in 1725, he devoted himself with great zeal to the study of the Bible and ascetical writings. In 1729, in conjunction with his brother Charles and fifteen other students of Oxford, he formed an association for the exploration of Biblical truths, for fasting, praying, and good works. At that time, on account of their cliquing together and separating themselves from the rest, they were already called "Methodists," which name they afterwards retained. In 1735 John Wesley and his brother went to America in order to convert the Indians. During their journey across the ocean they became acquainted with some Moravian missionaries, by whom they were initiated into their ways and doctrines. On arriving in America Wesley gave up his idea of converting the Indians, and accepted the place of a minister in Savannah.
In 1738 he returned to England, where he was interested in the formation of Moravain settlements, especially that of Fetter Lane, where he became acquainted with Brockmer. He soon separated, however, from the Moravians; and in connection with Whitfield became instrumental in establishing the great community of the Methodists; Being endowed with a considerable power of will and a prominent faculty for administration, he soon organized his adherents into a compact church, which before long separated from the Church of England.
In 1770 Wesley seems to have first become acquainted with the writings of Swedenborg. For in the printed "Extracts from his Journals," Part XV, (p. 84), we read under the date of February 28, 1770, AI sat down to read and seriously consider some of the writings of Baron Swedenborg. I began with huge prejudice in his favour, knowing him to be a pious man, one of strong understanding, of much learning, and one who thoroughly believed in himself. But I could not hold out long. Any one of his visions puts his real character out of doubt. He is one of the most ingenious, lively, entertaining madmen that ever set pen on paper. But his waking dreams are so wild, so far remote both from Scripture and common sense, that one might as easily swallow the stories of Tom Thumb, or Jack the Giant Killer."
In 1771 he wrote under the date of December 5 (Part XVI, p. 49), AI read a little more of that strange book, Baron Swedenborg's Theologia Coelestis. It surely contains many excellent things. Yet I can't but think, the fever he had twenty years ago, when he supposes he was 'introduced into the society of angels' really introduced him into the society of lunatics. But still there is something noble, even in his ravings:
"His mind has not yet lost
"All its original brightness, but appears
"Majestic, though in ruins."
All this Wesley wrote for publication; for his Journal was then regularly published. His private sentiments about Swedenborg, however, and those which he communicated to his most intimate friends are contained in Document 265. These sentiments are too well authenticated, to be disproved by the two preceding extracts. Still, in course of time, the ideas with which he identified himself in public on the subject of Swedenborg, completely swallowed up his private sentiments on this subject, so that in April, 1779, he made the following entry in his Journal (Part XVIII, p. 99), "In travelling this week I looked over Baron Swedenborg's account of Heaven and Hell.
He was a man of piety, of strong understanding, and most lively imagination. But he had a violent fever when he was five and fifty years old, which quite overturned his understanding. Nor did he ever recover it; but it continued 'majestic, but in ruins.' From that time he was exactly in the state of that gentlemen at Argos,
Qui se credebat miros audire tragdos,
In vacuo ltus sessor, plausorque, theatro.
Who wondrous tragedies was wont to hear
Sitting alone in the empty theatre.
"His words, therefore, from that time were Agri somnia, the dreams of a disordered imagination: just as authentic as 'Quevedo's Visions of Hell.' Of this work in particular I must observe that the doctrine contained therein, is not only quite unproved, quite precarious from beginning to end, as depending entirely on the affection of a single brain-sick man, but that in many instances, it is contradictory to Scripture, to Reason, and to itself. But over and above this, it contains many sentiments that are essentially and dangerously wrong. Such is that concerning the Trinity; for he roundly affirms God to be only one Person, who was crucified: so he revives and openly asserts the long exploded heresy of the Sabellians and Patripassians: yea, and that of the Anthropomorphites, affirming that God constantly appears in heaven in the form of a man. And the worst is, he flatly affirms, 'No one can go to heaven who believes three persons in the Godhead;' which is more than the most violent Arian or Socinian ever affirmed before.
"Add to this, that his ideas of heaven are low, grovelling, just suiting a Mahomedan paradise: and his account of it has a natural tendency to sink our conceptions, both of the glory of heaven and of the inhabitants of it, whom he describes its far inferior both in holiness and happiness to Gregory Lopez, or M. de Renty. And his account of hell leaves nothing terrible in it. For, first, he quenches the unquenchable fire. He assures us there is no fire there; only he allows that the governor of it, the Devil, sometimes orders the spirits that behave ill, 'to be laid on a bed of ashes.' And secondly he informs you, that all the damned enjoy their favourite pleasures. He that delights in filth, is to have his filth; yea, and his harlot too! Now how dreadful a tendency must this have, in such an age and nation as this? I wish those pious men, Mr. Clowes [see Note 218] and Mr. Clotworthy [Mr. Wesley probably means here Mr. Cookworthy, of Note 219] would calmly consider these things, before they usher into the world any more of this madman's dreams."
This harangue of Mr. Wesley--for a statement consisting for the most part of unproved assertions and allegations assailing the personal character of a man, and abounding with untruthful representations of his writings, deserves no other name--this harangue, I say, toned down in some parts, and in others stated more fully, constitutes Mr. Wesley's article against Swedenborg which was published in the "Arminian Magazine" for 1783. That portion of this article which contains the charge of insanity against Swedenborg, has been reproduced in Document 270 (pp. 584 et seq.), and fully answered. As to the statements which Mr. Wesley makes in the above extract against Swedenborg's teachings, they consist for the most part of unproved assertions, which belong to the same category as the barking of a vicious dog, of which a rational man cannot be expected to take any notice. Of that nature, also, is Mr. Wesley's assertion that "Swedenborg roundly affirms God to be only one Person, who was crucified." Swedenborg affirms no such thing; he teaches in agreement with Scripture that "the Word which in the beginning was with God, and which was God" and which "became flesh," i. e. which put on a human form, was crucified he teaches, therefore, that the body with which the Word the Son from eternity, became clothed, was crucified; but he does not teach that the Divine Soul which through the Word was in that body was crucified. The spirit or the soul cannot be crucified. Therefore, according to Swedenborg, it was not the Father, the Infinite Divine Soul, who was crucified, but the Son, i. e. the Divine Nature which was accommodated to the state of men, and which was clothed with a body. As to the charge of "Anthropomorphism," Mr. Wesley ought to have brought this charge against the Sacred Scripture in the first place; for everywhere in the Sacred Scripture God is spoken of in the human form, wherefore it is also stated there that man was created into His image. As to his statement that Swedenborg flatly affirms that "No one can go to heaven who believes three persons in the Godhead"--Swedenborg shows that the idea of three Divine persons is identical with the idea of three gods, and he says that no one who is confirmed in the idea of three gods can enter heaven. That there is only one God, and not three, is, however, taught in the Sacred Scripture from beginning to end.
By the charge that Swedenborg's ideas of heaven "just suit a Mahomedan paradise," Mr. Wesley seems to insinuate that according to Swedenborg polygamy prevails in heaven. This is a pure figment of Mr. Wesley's brain; and likewise that other statement, that "the governor of hell, the Devil, sometimes orders the spirits that behave ill, to be 'laid on a bed of ashes.'"
Swedenborg teaches nowhere that there is a governor or a chief in hell understood by the "Devil," but he teaches that the evil spirits of hell collectively are understood in the letter of the Word by the Devil and Satan.
With respect to Wesley's own ideas on marriage: he at first recommended celibacy but he married in 1749. His married life, however, was so unhappy, that he was at last divorced from his wife. He died in 1791.
NOTE 239
J. I. HAWKINS
The well-known engineer, John Isaac Hawkins, who furnished Mr. Noble with John Wesley's testimony respecting Swedenborg contained in Document 268, p. 565, was the son of the Rev. Isaac Hawkins, who had been a local preacher among the Methodists, but in 1806 was ordained a Minister of the New Jerusalem Church. On the occasion of his father's death, which occurred in 1820, when he was eighty-two years old, Mr. Hawkins furnished to the "Intellectual Repository" the following account of the manner in which his father had received the doctrines of the New Church. "While he was still a local preacher among the Methodists, Mr. James Hindmarsh, [the father of Robert Hindmarsh,220] was one of the travelling preachers sent out by Mr. Wesley, and he was appointed for two years to the circuit in which Mr. Hawkins lived. Mr. Hindmarsh and Mr. Hawkins became exceedingly attached to each other, and their friendship continued through life. In the year 1783, Mr. Hawkins settled in London; a year or two after which Mr. Hindmarsh met with the writings of Swedenborg, and becoming convinced of their inestimable value, he felt an anxious desire to share his spiritual joy with his bosom friend; he accordingly sought him and put into his hand the treatise on 'Heaven and Hell.' Mr. Hawkins had, for some time previous, seen great inconsistencies in the doctrines of the Methodists; but he had not met with anything to satisfy his mind, until he found it in this work. He read it with the utmost avidity, and read it again; and such was his conviction of the Divine Truths it inculcated, that he imagined all the Methodists would receive them as readily as he himself had done; he therefore purchased all the works of our illuminated author then translated into English, and lent them to his friends, whenever he had an opportunity.
An alarm soon spreading among the Methodists in consequence, Mr. Hawkins was cited before Mr. Wesley and a number of the leading preachers; on which occasion Mr. Wesley addressed him, saying, 'I understand, Mr. Hawkins, that you have found a new light.' He replied, 'Yes, Sir, I have found a new light: I perceive that I have been in darkness all my life, and I have abundant reason to bless the Lord for his mercies, in shewing me this new and glorious light: and I cannot do my friends a greater service than by endeavouring to display the same to them.' The ensuing week Mr. Hawkins was expelled from the Society of Methodists."
As regards Mr. J. I. Hawkins, the son, we gather the following particulars respecting him from the "Annual Report of the Institution of Civil Engineers" for 1865-66: "Mr. John Isaac Hawkins, was born on March 14, 1772, at Taunton, Somersetshire, where his father exercised the calling of a watch and clockmaker. At an early age he left England for the United States of America, where he entered the College of New Jersey, as a student of medicine. His natural talent and inclination for mechanical pursuits, however, soon induced him to change his course of study, and to devote his attention to perfecting the mode of removing chemical and mechanical impurities from water, by filtration in contact with charcoal, &c. On his return to England he patented, and introduced to the public, a machine for likenesses in profile, from t he size of life downwards. Combined with his talent for mechanical pursuits was that of a love for music. He had early in life mastered several musical instruments, and he now brought his ideas to bear upon their improvement, especially that of the piano-forte, which he commenced manufacturing under patents obtained by him. He also invented about this time, and some years afterwards manufactured, an instrument which he named the Claviole, or finger-keyed viol (see 'The Mechanic's Magazine,' Vol. XLIII), the scientific arrangements of which were so delicate and complete, that all the instruments usually comprising a band were successfully imitated by one performer. His chief talent lay in inventing and improving upon the useful scientific contrivances for manufacturing processes, among which may be named the refining of sugar by Howard's process, in the prosecution of which his acquaintance with the valuable properties of charcoal, as a purifying medium, was of great assistance, and he was induced to adapt it, with other combinations, for that purpose; and several years of his life were devoted to the erection and fitting up of sugar refineries, both at home and abroad....
"His intimate acquaintance with physical science, as well as his correct knowledge of all the improvements in arts and manufactures which had taken place for many years, eminently qualified him for the profession of a patent agent and consulting Engineer, which he exercised for many years, brining his varied experience to bear upon, and complete for practical purposes, the crude ideas of inventors.
"His own improvements of useful instruments were very numerous, and among them may be mentioned the Pentagraph, an instrument for giving any number of copies of a letter, or other document, at the time of writing the original; this was somewhat generally used, until it was superseded by Wedgwood's carbonic manifold writer, and by the modern forms of copying-presses. The ever-pointed pencil, and the everlasting gold pen, are among his useful, though minute inventions; for the latter he took the residuum found after dissolving platinum, and, with the iridium, he skilfully pointed the gold pens.
"He had for many years entertained the idea of returning to the United States, in order to perfect and to patent several new inventions; as he imagined that the expense of patents in Great Britain, at that time, pressed with undue severity upon inventors, since, unless they were prepared to incur a large expense for a problematical return, they could not exhibit their unpatented inventions, except at the risk of being deprived of them. On the other hand, he thought that the moderate charge to citizens of the United States of America, enabled a poor inventor to take out a patent there without the aid of a capitalists, and thus to convert his inventions into property, which he might take to market, and run no risk of losing his right. Being assisted by a few of the older members of the Institution of Civil Engineers, who knew him well and estimated his uprightness and simplicity of character, as well as the ingenuity of his mind, he carried his intention of emigrating into effect in the autumn of 1848, and in a farewell letter he said, 'The Creator has constituted me an inventor, and I consider every useful invention given me, as a commission from Him, in trust, for the benefit of mankind; and I should deem myself guilty of a breach of that trust, were I not to use every reasonable exertion to carry the same into effect, as long as it can afford me due support. Society is now enjoying many comforts and conveniences from my inventions, while I have great difficulty in procuring common necessaries.'
"Nothing was heard of him, after his arrival in the United States, until quite recently, when his death was reported to have occurred at Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, U. S., on June 28, 1855. It is feared that his sanguine anticipations of the States being a land of promise for inventors were not realized, and that he might eventually have been really better appreciated, had he remained in England."
The Editor of these Documents well recollects the appearance of the old man with a young wife at one of the Conventions of the New Church held in Philadelphia some time between 1850 and 1855. He presented himself there, as one of the oldest members of the New Church, and as the inventor of the ever-pointed pencil, and of the everlasting gold-pen, and of a great many other things, which were described in a little magazine, which he circulated among the members of the New Church. At that time he lived at Rahway, New Jersey; and he hoped that he would obtain subscribers enough for his little magazine, to enable him and his wife to live on the proceeds of its sale. He received some assistance from the New Church friends, but insufficient to support his magazine, the second number of which only appeared. Some time afterwards the news of his death was circulated. He died in want and poverty.
NOTE 240.
MANOAH SIBLY
The Rev. Manoah Sibly was for a long time the custodian of those MSS. Of Swedenborg which had been brought to England in 1788 by Mr. Wadström, and on that account his name is frequently mentioned in Document 309, pp. 812 et seq. He corroborated also J. I. Hawkins' account of the testimony John Wesley bore concerning Swedenborg, as is shown in Document 268, p. 566. The following particulars of his life are gathered from the "Intellectual Repository" for 1841 (pp. 140 et seq.):
He was born on August 20, 1757. His parents were dissenters. When very young, he was remarkable for his piety, and for his application to study, especially of the dead languages. By the time he was nineteen, he had acquired such a variety of information that he taught the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac languages, and the art of Shorthand, and published "A Critical Essay" on the correct rendering from the Hebrew of Jer. xxxiii, 16; in which he examined ten different translations, and gave one of his own of great beauty. In 1780 he married; and he lived happily with his wife for forty-nine years, when she was removed to the other life.
Mr. Sibly's thirst for knowledge led to his becoming a bookseller; as by that means he obtained a greater variety of choice reading than would otherwise have been within his reach. Mrs. Sibly, with the assistance of her eldest daughter, chiefly managed the selling department, and, for a short time, Mr. Sibly kept a school, in which his pupils' progress was highly satisfactory to their parents.
But as the confinement of the school did not agree with him, he relinquished it to adopt the profession of a Shorthand writer. In 1797, finally, a friend procured him a situation in the Bank of England. There he continued for upwards of forty-three years, being for the last twenty-five years principal of the Chancery Office, until within a few months of his decease. He was universally respected by all in the Bank, from the governor and directors, with whom he was in daily communication, down to the junior clerks.
For six or seven years previous to his reception of the doctrines of the New Church, he was in great distress of mind, approaching to despair of ever possessing real spiritual knowledge. He found himself very much inclined to espouse the doctrine of universal restitution, conceiving that to present the Lord in the most amiable aspect towards his creatures; but by the good providence of the Lord, in the latter end of the year 1787, he was introduced, by a person to whom he was almost a stranger, to the friends of the New Church, who then met at each other's houses on Sunday evenings; and learning at the first meeting he attended that they acknowledged the Lord Jesus Christ to be the one and only God of heaven and earth, this brilliant Divine Truth operated on his mind like a flash of lightning. He could truly say he saw the truth in its own light: and he left the meeting quite another man. He employed himself, while going home, in recalling to his memory various passages of Scripture confirmatory of the heavenly doctrine. He found himself brought out of darkness into marvellous light, and the next day defended the doctrine against some of his former connections, to whom he mentioned the change that had taken place in his religious sentiments, vainly expecting that they would as joyfully imbibe the Divine Truth. H e never afterwards absented himself willingly from the meeting of the friends.
Early in the next year, 1788, the society opened a chapel for the public worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only God of heaven and earth, in Great East Cheap; and in 1790 Mr. Sibly complied with the earnest wishes for the members, and was ordained into the ministry of the Lord's New Church by the Rev. James Hindmarsh and the Rev. Samuel Smith. The society, with Mr. Sibly as their minister, removed to Store Street, Tottenham Court Road, and after several other changes they finally removed to a church in Friar Street, near Ludgate Hill, which they had built, and which was opened for public worship in 1803.
Mr. Sibly at various times published a large number of sermons, chiefly at the request of the congregation.
Some of these were of great public interest, and tended to make the views of the New Church known to those who never attended its worship. He also published a volume of hymns, most of which were composed to suit his discourses, when he could not find one elsewhere. He assisted in drawing up the various editions of the Liturgy, and was one of the editors of the "Aurora," and contributed many valuable papers to the different new Church magazines. He took an active part in all the early Conferences, and was more or less concerned in every movement connected with the New Church as a distinct body.
Mr. Sibly died on December 16, 1840, in the eighty-third year of his age, and in the fifty-first year of his ministry.
NOTE 241.
WILLIAM GOMM.
Wm. Gomm, Esq., was Secretary to the British Ambassador at the Hague in 1785, and brother-in-law to the late Lord Malmesbury. As we read in Document 269, p. 572, "He was a most zealous and cordial approver of the New Jerusalem doctrines, and took an active part in the disseminating them in the higher circles of society. He translated into the French language such of the proceedings of the 'Theosophical Society' of London, as he thought were likely to interest foreigners in favour of the New Church; and wherever he met with opposition to the truth, or heard of reports injurious to the character and writings of Swedenborg, he exerted himself most strenuously in their defence." Mr. Gomm was thus instrumental in refuting the slander that Swedenborg retracted his writings in his last moments; which refutation constitutes Document 269. From Mr. Gomm also, B. Chastanier222 no doubt derived much of his support in the publication of the writings in French, since they all, on the title-page, bear the imprint of London and the Hague.
Mr. Servant, in a letter to Mr. James Glen, dated London, June 1, 1806, furnishes the following additional particulars concerning him: "He translated the French letter on Animal Magnetism, and at that time recommended the practice of it, but I have heard that when he became better acquainted with the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, he disavowed the practice as disorderly. Many of the friends verified this afterwards. Mr. Gomm was a good character; he died some years since."
Mr. Wm. Gomm, it appears, was the uncle [father?] of Captain James Gomm, R. N., who introduced the knowledge of the doctrines of the New Church into the Island of Jersey, and died there in 1838.
Of him we read in the "Intellectual Repositor" for 1839 (p. 497) that "he entered the navy in his thirteenth year, was an early recipient of the truths of the New Church, and was known personally to several of the gentlemen who held their first meetings at a room in the Temple, London, to whom he was introduced by his father, brother-in-law to the late Lord Malmesbury." Particulars of his life in the Island of Jersey, and of the persecutions which he suffered there on account of his adherence to the doctrines of the New Church, are contained in the same article.
In the "Intellectual Repository" for 1831 (p. 557) is an obituary notice of the Rev. Wm. Gomm, many years Rector of Bramdean, Hants, and of Ham, Wilts. Of him we read that "he had long been an affectionate receiver of the truths of the New Dispensation as contained in the writings of Swedenborg."
NOTE 242.
IMMANUEL KANT.
See Note 184.
NOTE 243.
"THE ENGLISHMAN GREEN."
In his letter to Charlotte von Knobloch (Document 272, pp. 625 et seq.) Immanuel Kant says, "In the meantime I made the acquaintance of a highly educated English gentlemen, who spent the last summer at this place, and whom, relying on the friendship we had formed, I commissioned, as he was going to Stockholm, to make particular inquiries respecting the miraculous gift which Swedenborg is said to possess." Dr. Im. Tafel observes here (Document 272, p. 621), "In respect to Kant's friendship with an Englishman it may be reasonably expected that it would be noticed by his biographers; wherefore the Englishman mentioned in the letter could not have been any other than the Englishman Green, with whom Kant had formed a close friendship."
From Document 272, pp. 621 to 624, it appears that "Kant made the acquaintance of his friend Green during the summer of 1767; that Green saw Swedenborg early in 1768, and returned to Knigsberg in time to meet Kant on Whit-Monday, 1768."
As the "Englishman Green" is Kant's authority for the circumstantial account he gives, in his letter to Charlotte von Knobloch of the "Conflagration in Stockholm" (Document 273, p. 628) and of the "Lost Receipt" (Document 274, p. 635), we quote here the following account with Jachmann, who finished Borowski's Life of Kant, gives of that gentleman.
He wrote in 1804:
"The most intimate and trusty friend whom Kant had during his whole life, was the English merchant Green, who has now been dead for upwards of twenty years. The peculiar worth of this man, and the important influence which he exerted on our philosopher, appears from the following description of their bond of friendship. It sprang from a singular incident, which threatened at first to generate a deadly hatred between them.
"At the time of the Anglo-American war [see below] Kant one afternoon was taking a walk in Dnhoff's garden, and stopped before an arbour in which he saw one of his acquaintances in company with some gentlemen whom he did not know. He entered into conversation, in which they all took part. Soon contemporaneous events engaged their attention. Kant took the part of the Americans he defended their just case, and blamed the conduct of the English in strong language. Suddenly one of the gentlemen of the company jumped up full of rage, stepped in front of Kant, told him that he was an Englishman, and declared that he considered his whole countrymen and himself personally insulted by his language. He, therefore, full of indignation, demanded satisfaction from him, and challenged him to a bloody duel. Kant was not in the least disconcerted by the ebullition of the gentlemen, but continued the conversation; and he now bean with such powerful eloquence to explain his political principles and views, and to show the point of view from which every man, in his character as a cosmopolitan, and without in the least interfering with his patriotism, must look upon this and similar historical events, that Green-for he was the Englishman-full of astonishment seized his hand in a friendly manner, assented to the lofty ideas of Kant, begged his pardon for his rashness, accompanied him in the evening to his residence, and invited him to pay a friendly visit. Green's partner, the late Mr. Motherby, was present during this incident, and he often assured me that Kant while delivering his speech appeared to himself and the rest who were present, as inspired with a heavenly power, and conquered their hearts for ever."
Dr. Im. Tafel takes exception here to the expression, "At the time of the Anglo-American war," for he shows (see Document 272, p. 621) that Kant and Green were intimate friends long before the beginning of the American war, i. e. long before 1775. The causes, however, which brought about the American revolution, existed as early as 1764 when the English parliament claimed the right of imposing taxes on the colonies; and in 1765 Parliament passed the stamp act; and in May, 1767, thus at the time when Kant made Green's acquaintance according to Dr. Im. Tafel (see Document 272, p. 624).
Parliament passed a law whereby the importation of tea into the colonies was taxed. Kant, no doubt, expressed himself in 1767 against the justice of these laws; so that if the expression "At the time of the Anglo-American war" is made to include the causes that led to it, the whole of what precedes is made to agree with the dates in question. Jachmann continues:
"Kant and Green, in the end, entered into a most intimate friendship, which was based upon wisdom and mutual esteem, and which grew daily more intimate and close; and when it was severed by the early death of Green our philosopher suffered so deeply, that, although he soothed his pain by the grandeur of his soul, he never got over it completely.
"Kant discovered in Green a man possessed of much knowledge, and of so clear an understanding, that he often avowed to me, that he never penned a sentence in his 'Critique of Pure Reason' without reading it to Green, and subjecting it to his unbiassed understanding unfettered to any system. Green as to his character was a rare and singular man; distinguished by the strictest justice, and animated by real generosity; yet he was full of eccentricities; a whimsical man in the true sense of the word; whose days were spent in an unalterable, whimsical fashion. Hippel described him as the man who goes by the watch.' Let me illustrate this by one example. Kant had promised Green to accompany him the following morning at eight o'clock on a drive. Green, on such occasions, opened his watch a quarter of an hour before the time, and holding it in his hand walked about the room, after five minutes he seized his hat, after five minutes more his cane, and with the first stroke of the clock entered his carriage. He did this on the present occasion and drove off; on the way he met Kant, but he did not stop for him, because it was not in accordance with the agreement or his rule.
"In the society of this brilliant, noble-minded, but eccentric man, Kant found much to feed and recreate his heart and mind, so that at last he became his daily companion, and he spent daily many hours in his company. Kant went to his house every afternoon, where he found Green sleeping in his easy chair; he sat down at his side, began to meditate, and soon fell likewise asleep. Afterwards Ruffmann, the director of the bank, arrived, and he generally followed their example, until at last Motherby, at a certain time, entered the room and awakened the company.
They then entered into the most interesting conversation, which they kept up until seven o'clock. Punctually at seven o'clock the company rose, so that I frequently heard that people who lived in the same street, remark, that it was not yet seven o'clock, because Professor Kant had not yet passed. On Sundays the friends, who were then joined by Hay, the Scotch merchant, and several others, remained to supper, which consisted of a frugal repast of cold meat.
"This friendly intercourse, which existed during the middle age of the philosopher, no doubt exerted a decided influence on his heart and on his character. Green's death introduced also a change into his course of life, so that he never afterwards attended evening parties, nor ate supper. It seemed as if that time, which had once been devoted to the most intimate friendship, was ever afterwards consecrated by him to the departed friend, and that to the end of his life he desired to spend it in tranquil solitude."
Hippel said in Schlichtegroll's Nekrolog (Obituary notices) for 1792, Part II, p. 318, "I knew in this town an English merchant, by the name of Green, Kant's friend, who found comfort in every thing, even in his own death; in his death he found this comfort that he would play a trick to his terrible sufferings, which would then surely cease."
NOTE 244.
Thiebault, THE ACADEMICIAN.
Thiebault (Dieudonn) was born December 26, 1733, at La Roche, near Remiremont. He was educated by the Jesuits at Colmar, Dijon, and pinal. Urged by his masters to enter their order he did so, and at the end of his novitiate course was appointed professor of the humanities in several colleges of Lorraine and Champagne. When the order was broken up in 1762 he turned layman again, and applied himself to jurisprudence with a view of practising at the bar of Colmar. But being led to Paris he remained there, and devoted himself to literature. Having written some works with elegance and ease, he made friends among the philosophers. Soon after D'Alembert and others recommended him to Frederic the Great, by whom he was appointed to the chair of general grammar in the military school in Berlin, in 1765. He made a favourable impression on the King at their first interview, so that he appointed him at once a member of the Academy, with a pension. For twenty years he enjoyed the confidence of Frederic, who treated him with more respect than any other man about him.
He was the reader of all the papers which the King himself handed in to the Academy; he edited almost everything which the King printed, and corrected a great number of his works. Notwithstanding the favour in which he stood at the Court of Berlin, he resolved in 1784 to return to France, for the purpose, it seems, of carrying out some pet schemes of his own, one of which referred to the establishment of Mutual Fire Insurance Companies, and the other to the proper organization of libraries. After his return to Paris he was appointed sub-chief of the Royal Library, and was just beginning to introduce his reforms, when the revolution put an end to his plans. After filling many offices under the new government, he was chosen in 1799 professor o general grammar in the cole Centrale de la Rue Saint-Antoine, and in 1803 was transferred to the Lyce, which had recently been established at Versailles; and there he died in 1807.
Thiebault was the author of several works on education, language, and general grammar, and also on libraries. The work in which he gives his version of the "Queen's Story," as he heard it from the Queen of Sweden herself (Document 275, M), and that of the "Lost Receipt," as he had heard it from Chamberlain von Ammon, Madame de Marteville's brother, (Document 274, H) is entitled: Mes Souvenirs de vingt ans de sjour Berlin, ou Frdic le Grand, sa famille, sa cour, son gouvernemnet, son acadmie, ses coles, et ses amis littrateurs et philosophes, (My recollections of a stay of twenty years in Berlin, or Frederic the Great, his family, his court, his government, his academy, h is schools, and his literary and philosophical friends). Of this work, which is written in a somewhat diffuse style, but which abounds with curious details which are little known, three editions appeared, the first in 1804 in five volumes, the second in 1813 in four volumes, and the third in 1827 in five volumes.
NOTE 245.
MERIAN, THE ACADEMICIAN.
Merian and Thiebault were the two academicians in Berlin, to whom Queen Louisa Ulrica gave an account of her experience with Swedenborg (see Document 274, p. 644, and Document 275, p. 655); the Queen, however, must have enjoined upon them not to communicate her story to others, as is proved by Pernety's account, Document 275, p. 657. From the "Nouvelle Biographie Gnrale," we derive the following particulars respecting Merian:
John Bernard Merian was born in 1723 at Liestal, near Ble in Switzerland. When seventeen years old he took his degree of doctor of philosophy. Having tired in vain for a chair in the university, he took orders and became a preacher. Afterwards he accepted a situation as teacher in Amsterdam, where he remained until 1771, when he was invited to the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. There he laboured in the class of philosophy until 1791, when he joined the class of belles-lettres. In 1797 he was appointed perpetual secretary to the Academy. He died in 1807. Merian was distinguished for the impartiality of his opinions, his immense learning and extraordinary memory; which, however, as his biographer observes, "did not deprive him of the ability to express himself with taste, sobriety, and precision." He further says of him, that "he was more intent on conveying to others useful information, than shining before them by his learning and perspicacity." In philosophy he opposed the systems of Locke, Condillac, Leibnitz, and Wolf, and thus approached nearer the idealistic school.
NOTE 246.
AUGUSTUS WILLIAM, PRINCE OF PRUSSIA.
Augustus William, who figures so prominently in the story of the Queen of Sweden and Swedenborg, related in Document 275, was born on August 9, 1722. He was heir apparent to Frederic the Great, so declared by Frederic himself on June 30, 1744. He lost the battle of Hastenbeck on July 26, 1757, at which the King, his brother, was greatly displeased. The following is the message he received from the King (see Carlyle's Frederic the Great, Vol. V. p. 130): "His Majesty commands me to inform Your Royal Highness, That he has cause to be greatly discontented with you; that you deserve to have a court-martial held over you, which would sentence you and all your Generals to death; but that His Majesty will not carry the matter so far, being unable to forget that in the Chief General he has a brother." A correspondence ensued between the two Royal brothers; after which the Prince applied for leave to return home, which was granted. He died within a year, on June 12, 1758, at Oranienbaum, with his family, "of chagrin," as the messenger told the King when he inquired "what he died of?"
Augustus William was the father of the Kings of Prussia who succeeded Frederic the Great.
NOTE 247.
COUNT J. PH. VON SCHWERIN.
Count Jacob Philip von Schwerin, who was present when Swedenborg related to the Queen of Sweden the result of his conversation with her departed brother, the Prince of Prussiia,246 was born in 1719. After having spent several years in the service of the Count he was appointed in 1747 councillor of the government (Regeringsrd) in Pomerania, and in 1753 president of the court of Wismar. In 1766 he was made a count, in 1769 senator (riksrd), and two years afterwards marshal-in-chief to the dowager Queen Louisa Ulrica. When the revolution of 1772 took place he was relieved of his senatorship, but was soon after recalled into the senate, and continued in that office until his death in 1779. Count von Schwerin was a man of a lofty and sober character, and, when circumstances required, was not afraid to pronounce his opinion. When he visited Berlin in 1770, as governor of Duke Charles, Frederick II received him with manifest marks of dislike, and one day evidently pointing at Schwerin said: "Stupidity can never disguise itself in the features of any man." "In this case," said Schwerin fixing his eyes on the King, "Your Majesty is mistaken. Many a one may be narrow-minded and slow in some things, and yet quick in others; when quickness, however, is drowned by prejudice, it is no proof of genius." He thus reproved the conqueror of Silesia in a certain sense, who from that moment changed his opinion in respect to the estimable Swedish Senator, and expressed in many ways the respect which he henceforth entertained for him. This account of Count von Schwerin is taken from Hofberg's Svenskt Biografiskt Hadlexicon.
NOTE 248.
CAPTAIN Stålhammar.
Captain Carl Leonhard Stålhammar, who in a letter dated May 13, 1788 (Document 276, p. 677), condemned the explanation which the Berlinische Monatsschrift gave of the "Queen's Story" (see Document 276, I, p. 698 et seq.) was born in 1736. In 1763 he became lieutenant in the infantry regiment from East Gothland (stgtha), afterwards captain and knight of the order of the Sword. In 1767 he retired from the service, and died in 1797.
NOTE 249.
CHAMBERLAIN VON AMMON.
(a) "Christopher Henry von Ammon, the brother of Madame de Marteville, from whom the Academician Thiebault received his account of the "Lost Receipt" (see Document 274, p. 644), was born in Halberstadt. Soon after the accession to the throne of Frederic II, he became minister resident at the Court of Dresden, and afterwards Minister Plenipotentiary. On that occasion, in 1742, the King ennobled him; and in 1765 he extended this honour by a diploma to the three brothers of the ambassador. He is mentioned as Baron von Ammon, Royal Chamberlain, and councillor in the superior court of the French colony. In 1768 he published a genealogical work with the following title: Gnalogie ascendante de tous les Rois et Princes des maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellemen vivans. The first member of this family, which originally came from Neufchatel in Switzerland, is Bernard Ammon, who was councillor of the King of Poland, and formerly judged of the French colony at Halberstadt." The above is derived from Zedlitz-Neukirch, Neues Preussisches Adels-Lexicon. From the same source we also derive the following notices:
(b) "A sister of the Baron was married to a Count von Schwerin" (see Document 276, II, p. 681).
(c) "Extracts from the Register of the Church of the French Refugees in Berlin:
"Certificate of marriage of Anthony Christian Lewis Marteville de St. Souverain, a native of Tornau in the Marche, Aide de Camp of General de Ginkel in the service of the Republic of the United Provinces; son of Arthur Anthony Peter, Lord (Seigneur) de Martevile, St. Souverain, Beaupr, and Boisgoubert, captain in the service of the King of Prussia and of Lady Lueretia d'EstopeBto Mademoiselle Mary Louisa Ammon, daughter of Bernard Ammon, councillor of the King of Holland and judge of the French colony at Halberstadt."
NOTE 250.
SOPHIA ALBERTINA, PRINCESS OF SWEDEN.
The Princess of Sweden appears in Document 276, pp. 680 and 686 as a witness affirming the truth of the experience of Swedenborg with the Queen, her mother. In Hofberg's Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexicon we read respecting her: "She was born on October 8, 1573, and was the only daughter and youngest child of King Adolphus Frederic11 and Queen Louisa Ulrica.
When fourteen years old her uncle, Frederic the great of Prussia, appointed her 'coadjutrix' of the abbey at Quedlinburg, which yielded her a handsome revenue; this was greatly increased when in 1787 she became the abbess proper. During the latter part of her life Queen Louisa Ulrica preferred Princess Sophia Albertina to all her other children, and she on her part by her self-sacrificing affection and devotion sought to deserve her mother's love. She visited her abbey but rarely, and spent most of her time in Sweden, where she, the only surviving branch of her family, saw it excluded from the throne, and another dynasty raised up in its stead. The last years of her life she spent separated from the world, busying herself with objects of art. Some valuable pieces of work, the product of her own hands, with the assistance of the ladies attending upon her, are still preserved. By nature she was gentle and benevolent; she won the hearts of all, and when she died in 1826, in her seventy-fifth year, her departure into the other life was mourned by a great number of needy people, whom she had succoured with assistance and advice.
NOTE 251.
CHEVALIER BEYLON.
The name of this gentleman is given in Document 276, pp. 696, 699 et seq., as the authority on which the Berlinische Monastsschrift for 1783 based itself in its attempted explanation of the "Queen's story." This testimony, whether originating with Chevalier Beylon or not, is totally disproved on pp. 678, 685, and 688. Letocard says of him in Document 276, III, p. 686, "Chevalier Beylon arrived in Stockholm in the year 1760. *** This refined subtle courtier died in 1779, very much regretted by the whole court, having had the rare faculty of causing himself to be loved and esteemed by both the parties into which Sweden was then divided."
In Hofberg's Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexicon w read concerning him, "Jean Franois Beylon was reader to Queen Louisa Ulrica. He was born in Lausanne and receive da call to Sweden in 1760, to act as reader to the Queen. Possessed of a large stock of information, much discrimination, a fine tact, and engaging manners, and withal being trusty and inspiring confidence, he in a short time became the confidant of the Royal family, 'an important courtier, a secret minister, but a public favourite.'
He was initiated into the secrets of the state, was employed as a means of intercommunication between the court and foreign ministers; and he was the centre around which revolved all the political plans and projects of his period so far as they emanated from or affected the Swedish Court. As his services were required even abroad in the capacity of a negotiator he was appointed in 1767 knight of the Polar star, in order, under the title of 'chevalier,' which means much or little, to have open access to all circles. When the party at court resolved that the Crown-Prince12 should undertake a journey to France, chiefly for the purpose of making sure of King Louis's assistance at a proposed change in the government, Beylon was sent in advance, in order to confer with the Duc de Choiseul, and prepare for the reception of the Prince. After Gustavus had ascended the throne, Beylon often received the difficult and unpleasant commission to mediate between him and his mother, who had held the reins of government, a mere Queen Dowager. In the revolution of 1772 Beylon was the invisible, but most powerful instrument in Gustavus's hand. He it was who treated with the sharp-sighted, but economical French minister Vergennes; he, again, carried on the negotiations with the house of Le Grand; and through his hands went all the moneys which the King received from the house of Grill. After the revolution Beylon considered himself superfluous, and quietly withdrew. By the liberality of Queen Louisa Ulrica and Gustavus III, and by annual pensions which he drew from Sapin and France, Beylon had all he wanted for his table; the only enjoyment to which he was inclined. His house, the modest dwelling near Ulriksdal, which after him was called Beylonshof, was the place of meeting of the distinguished, the literary, artistic, and fashionable world. Ministers, statesmen, and artists visited there the modest 'chevalier' whose judgment was considered infallible, whether it concerned diplomacy, literature and science, or fashion and cookery. Beylon died November 12, 1779."
NOTE 252.
BISHOP NORDIN.
Charles Gustavus Nordin, who supported the explanation which the Berlinische Monatsschrift for 1783 gave of the Queen's experience with Swedenborg (see Document 276, B, pp. 675 et seq.), was born in 1749. After passing through the University of Upsal he was appointed "lector" (professor) of eloquence and poetry in Hernsand.
History had always been his favourite subject, and he soon began to make collections of papers and MSS. Throwing light on Swedish history. In 1782, on Gjörwell's advice, Gustavus III summoned Nordin to Stockholm in order that he might collect and edit a Corpus Diplomaticum. "While thus engaged," says the "Biografiskt lexicon," "he was brought into intimate relations with the King, who discovered in him an instrument willing to carry out his despotic projects and also able to work for the King among the clergy." Soon he began to reap the benefit of the royal favour. He was appointed one of the first members of the Swedish Academy, and after being ordained into the ministry, he was presented with the living of Skellefte, retaining, however, his position as lector in Hernsand. In advancing the King's plans among the clergy, he worked in the same field with Bishop Wallquist, another of the King's tools, who also had much influence among them. Nordin and Wallquist, however, did not work together, but sometimes advised the King to take opposite measures. So Nordin in 1789 advised the King to arrest the refractory nobles, to which measure the "Biografiskt Lexicon," "was so extreme (s frgtt sig) that Wallquist afterwards had constantly the preference with the King. Gustavus, nevertheless, often followed Nordin's advice, and he was still admitted to the private deliberations which the King held with his trusty friends. There is no doubt that Nordin was the most learned among Gustavus's camarilla."
On the King's decease in 1792, Nordin was sent back to Hernsand to his lectorate, and he continued there during the following years, until in 1800 he became Dean of Eat ngermanland, and was created a doctor of divinity, and in 1805 he was appointed Bishop of Hernsand. He died in 1812. His collection of historical MSS. and papers was purchased in 1814 by the Crown-Prince Carl Johan, and presented to the library at Upsal, where together with the collections of Palmskld it constitutes "the richest source for investigations into Swedish history."
Among these papers are also his Dagboks anteckningar (Notes in his Diary) for the years 1786-1792, which were published in the Historiska Handlingar (Historical Transactions), Vol. VII, 1868. Among these "Notes" is that of which we gave a translation in Document 276, B, p. 675, and in which Nordin seeks to confirm the account of the "Berlinische Monatsschrift." On p. 676 we pointed out the historical inaccuracies and inconsistencies which are contained in this account.
That Nordin's historical papers are generally inaccurate, and full of his own subjective views, is proved by the following criticism of his biographical contributions to the Transactions of the Swedish Academy. The "Biografiskt Lexicon" says on this subject: "The annual eulogies pronounced in that Academy were written by Nordin. Yet it cannot be said that he has left good patterns for similar works. Most of these biographies are without order and substance, full of subjective views and empirical reasonings. They are written in fluent style, yet they lack solidity and power. He had the wrong notion about eloquence, that it did not require historical accuracy. Besides, the author had this fault, that he entered upon such writings too late. When such biographical notices were required, he usually called in one of the students, and dictated to him the whole biography, without taking down a single book, and depending altogether upon his memory, which certainly was unusually good. This notice we have derived from one who on sundry such occasions acted as Nordin's amanuensis."
For further accounts respecting Nordin see Hofberg's Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexicon, and also the Biografiskt Lexicon.
NOTE 253.
L. L. VON BRENKENHOFF.
This gentleman was the editor of the interesting publication, which constitutes Document 276, D, pp. 679-687, and wherein he exposes the false statements of the "Berlinische Monatsschrift." That publication was issued in Potsdam, in 1789, under the title: "Paradoxa, Part II, which treats not of military matters, but concerns the pseudo-enlighteners." He was born in Dessau in 1750. At first he was an officer in the army of Saxony, but afterwards in that of Prussia. He died in 1799 with the rank of major. Part I of his "Paradoxa" which appeared in 1785 treated of the "Organisation of the light troops." His father Leopold Schnberg von Brenkenhoff stood high in the favour of Frederic II, by whom he was made superior councillor of finance, of war, and of the royal domains. In this latter capacity he succeeded in reclaiming large tracts of submerged and marshy territory; and thus was reckoned among the benefactors of his country.
NOTE 254.
ANDERS FRYXELL.
Anders Fryxell bears the reputation of being the foremost Swedish historian living at the present day; with what right, we shall presently see. He has enriched our collection with Documents 1977, and 291, no. 7. The following account of him is derived from Hofber's Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexicon.
A. Fryxell was born in 1795. After passing through the University of Upsal he was ordained into the ministry in 1820. From that time until 1835 he was engaged as teacher in several collegiate schools, and at last was made the principal of that connected with the parish of Mary's Church in Stockholm. In 1835 he was appointed pastor of Sunne in Wermland. In 1840 he had the honor of becoming one of the eighteen members who constitute the Swedish Academy. In 1845 he was created doctor of theology. He first appeared in public as the author of a novel and of some poetry. In 1823 he issued Volume I of his Berttelser ur Svenska Historien (Tales from Swedish History), which has been continued down to 1875, when Volume XLIII appeared; the first Volumes of this work, which carried his name wherever the Swedish language is spoken, were printed in several editions, and translated into Danish, German, French, and Dutch. "Fryxell," says the "Handlexicon," "has been called the Swedish Herodotus. AS an historian in the popular style he is unsurpassed; although in the later volumes of his great historical work he has written more for the educated classes, than for the people in general. His immortal honour meanwhile consists in having awakened by his 'Tales' in the hearts of the Swedish people an affection for the history of their nation, and in calling back to their memory the names of their great men, and continually keeping them before them. In order that he might devote himself exclusively to his historical labours, he was released in 1847 from his pastoral duties, retaining, however, the income from his pastorate."
In the last volume of his "Tales," (Volume XLIII, which was published in 1875), Fryxell published a biography of Swedenborg which extends from p. 149-269. When a professional historian, like Fryxell, writes a biography he is expected to observe in its composition all those rules and principles which a genuine historian follows in writing the history of a whole people. These principles are as follows: (1) He must make a faithful study of those sources and documents which contain the genuine facts of a biography. (2) An historian must distinguish between original sources and documents, and secondary accounts written long after the death of a person.
(3) In writing a biography he is expected to confine himself to the facts of his sources and documents, and not to invent any facts himself. (4) An historian is expected to quote his evidence correctly, and not to twist and pervert it. (5) He must not make wild and inaccurate statements. (6) Precision and accuracy characterize the genuine historian. When conflicting evidence is presented, and not according to his own prejudices or likes and dislikes. (7) An historian of the nineteenth century is expected to be unprejudiced and liberal, and free from bigotry and intolerance.
All these rules and principles, which characterize the genuine historian, Anders Fryxell has violated in his biography of Swedenborg, as we shall now prove:
First. (1) The sources for a biography of Swedenborg on which Fryxell ought to have based himself are contained in Dr. Im. Tafel's Sammlung von Urkunden betreffend das Leben und den Character Emanuel Swedenborg's, aus den Quellen treu wiedergegeben und mit Ammerkungen begleitet (A collection of Documents concerning the Life and Character of Emanuel Swedenborg, faithfully gathered from their sources, and furnished with notes). This work which exits also in English and American editions, and which might have been consulted by Fryxell in the Royal Library of Stockholm, he has apparently ignored completely. He provided himself with a copy of Volume I of the present work, but he did not make a proper use of it, as appears from nos. 2, 4, 12, 14, and 15 below. The sources on which he drew for biographical facts are White's "Emanuel Swedenborg; his life and writings," published in 1867, and Maudsley's article on Swedenborg in the Journal of Mental Science for 1869; at least these are the only authorities he quotes. Of Swedenborg's writings, according to his own statement (p. 204) he consulted the "Spiritual Diary" and the Arcana Coelestia, and he also made use of his Private Diary for 1743 and 1744, known as the "Dream-book." He thus examined about half a dozen out of the one hundred and fifty treatises and tracts which Swedenborg wrote; while the biographical facts of his life he derived from secondary sources, thus violating the first fundamental law of an historian, according to which he ought to have gone for his facts exclusively to the original sources and documents.
Secondly, in writing a Life of Swedenborg, Fryxell, as an honest and just historian, ought to have limited himself to the accredited and documentary facts of his life, and ought not have introduced spurious facts based on hearsay, or originating in his own fancy.
Such spurious facts in his biography of Swedenborg, are the following:
(2) On p. 159 he says, "During Swedenborg's stay abroad, in England and Holland, Locke's doctrine made a deep impression on him. He expressed also his admiration for this 'celebrated man' and for his 'golden philosophical work.'" The whole of this statement is a pure invention; for in the letters which Swedenborg wrote home during his first stay in England and Holland, and which are printed in Volume I of the present work, (pp. 206 to 233) which was in Fryxell's hand when he wrote the above statement, Locke's name is not mentioned once; and the words which Fryxell attributes to Swedenborg in connection with Locke, he never used, nor has he expressed himself anywhere either affirmatively or negatively in respect to Locke's philosophy; wherefore also the following statement of Fryxell is a mere assertion, "On account of the knowledge which he had imbibed from Locke's philosophical system .... doubts began to arise in his mind as to the truth of several doctrines of faith accepted by the Church."
(3) On p. 159 he states, "For a time he also admired Voltaire." This again is a pure invention, as Swedenborg did not anywhere either in his writings or by letter express himself concerning Voltaire. To Cuno he said (Document 256, p. 453), "For many years I have not thought of any thing in connection with Voltaire."
(4) On p. 164 he declares, "He treated with coldness and scorning indifference the greatest scientific discoveries of Newton." And again he says on p. 164. "He has but seldom mentioned Newton." The real facts of the case are that in Document 39 Swedenborg declares, "I study Newton daily, and am very anxious to see and hear him." And when Prof. Elfvius wrote to him in Document 42, that he would like to know, "What the learned mathematicians think about Newton's theory of the motion of the planets .... which seems to be an absurdity, "Swedenborg answered in Document 43, p. 219, that "it would be criminal to doubt Newton's Principia." These documents were in Fryxell's possession when he made the above statement.
(5) On p. 167 he says of Swedenborg in 1736, "In connection therewith he began studying Plotinus, perhaps also other writers of the same sort, whose mysticism certainly contributed in a measure to the direction his views afterwards took." That Swedenborg studied Plotinus and other similar writers about 1736 or afterwards is a pure invention. The name Plotinus does not occur in the whole of Swedenborg's writings;
and as to the assertion that he studied mystical writers, this is totally denied by Swedenborg in a passage to which Fryxell himself refers in a footnote on p. 167, and where we read, "You desire to know my opinion respecting the writings of Böhme and L[aw]: I have never read them, and I was forbidden to read authors on dogmatic and systematic theology, before heaven was opened to me" (Document 234). Yet in the face of this very pointed denial on the part of Swedenborg, Fryxell nevertheless persists in making the above false statement.
(6) On p. 184 Fryxell, in order to deprive Captain Stålhammar's testimony of its weight, does not hesitate to call him a "Swedenborgian" (swedenborgare), although Stålhammar expressly declares, "I am far from being a follower of Swedenborg" (see Document 276, p. 678).
(7) On p. 201 he declares, "Swedenborg looked upon himself as the founder of the New Church, and therefore in a certain measure as a second Saviour of mankind;" and on p. 202 he declares that Swedenborg taught that "religion was to be regenerated by himself." These blasphemous statements belong to Fryxell and not to Swedenborg. Swedenborg himself describes his mission thus, "As the Lord cannot manifest Himself in person, and yet foretold that He would come again and establish a New Church which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He would do this by a man who could not only receive the doctrines of that Church with his understanding, but also publish them by the press." On this account also Swedenborg on the title page of the "True Christian Religion," called himself "Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."
(8) On p. 203 he says, "More than most did Swedenborg exalt good above truth," and on p. 222, "Warm and warming is the zeal with which he constantly places good above truth." Swedenborg's teaching in this respect is, that good without truth is insufficient and not saving, and likewise truth without good, and that in order to be saving good must be conjoined with truth, and truth with good.
Thirdly, in quoting facts and statements a conscientious historian is expected to quote them correctly, and not to twist and pervert them. Of this Fryxell has been guilty in what follows:
(9) On p. 200 he asserts that "Swedenborg speaks about the dragon and his evil spirits, which even before creation were cast from heaven; and in another place he speaks about the devil who seduced Eve (see 'Spiritual Diary,' 4321, 4323). And thus in both these cases he assumed the existence of evil spirits, before any human beings had died, the spirits of whom could be changed into devils." The first of these statements is a pure assertion on Fryxell's part, for which he does not quote any authority; but in support of the second assertion he quotes the "Spiritual Diary," nos. 4321 and 4323.
The first of these passages in the original reads as follows, "It was a certain devil who believed that he was the very devil, who deceived Adam and Eve, according to the common opinion." And the second passage, "There was a certain one who believed that he was the devil who seduced Adam and Eve." Swedenborg therefore reports this as the opinion of another, but Fryxell by a strange obliquity of vision attributes this opinion to Swedenborg himself. As to evil spirits being cast from heaven before the creation, this is one of Fryxell's own ideas which he seeks to fasten on Swedenborg, in order to be able to raise against him the charge of self-contradiction.
Fourthly, from a professional historian we expect that he will avoid loose and inaccurate statements. The reverse is the case in Fryxell's Life of Swedenborg, which from beginning to end abounds with loose and inaccurate statements, as appears from what follows:
(10) On p. 149 he classes Berzelius among those who regard Swedenborg as a "fanatic, an arch-fantastic (erkefantast), a fool, and an insane person," when yet Berzelius, before the Scandinavian Scientific Association in 1842 makes most honourable mention of Swedenborg, and says that he was the first "who made genuine geological examinations" in Sweden, and in his letters to Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson uses the following strong language in his favour: "I am surprised at the great knowledge displayed by Swedenborg on a subject ['the Animal Kingdom'] that a professed metallurgist would not have been supposed to have made an object of study, and in which, as in all he undertook, he was in advance of his age." And again he says, "I hope the anatomists and physiologists of our day will profit by this work, both for the sake of extending their ideas, and of rendering justice to the genius of Swedenborg."
(11) On p. 151 he declares that "Swedenborg was twice saved as a child from a burning house." Only once was Bishop Swedberg's house burnt down during Swedenborg's childhood, viz. In 1698, while he was professor in Upsal. When the bishop's house was burnt down a second time in Skara, in 1712, Swedenborg was in England. Besides, it is not mentioned in any document that Swedenborg was then in danger of his life.
(12) On p. 155 Fryxell alludes to a letter which Swedenborg wrote from Greifswalde; the letter in question (Document 46) is dated from Rostock and not from Greifswalde.
(13) On p. 156 he states that the Ddalus Hyperboreus was published by the newly formed Society of Science in Upsal, when yet Swedenborg published it on his own responsibility, and on his own resources entirely.
(14) On p. 157 he declares that by his Ddalus Hyperboreus he became first known to Polhem, viz. In 1715; when yet Swedenborg as early as 1710 spent several months with Polhem (see Document 38).
(15) On p. 157 he further declares Swedenborg "under Polhem's direction worked in the salt boileries;" when yet it was Swedenborg himself who started this project (see Documents 69, 73, and 77).
(16) On p. 158 he says that "After the King's death Swedenborg undertook a new journey abroad." The King, i. e. Charles XII, died in 1718, and Swedenborg did not enter upon a new journey until 1721.
(17) On p. 153 he says that "Swedenborg in his youth was inclined to mysticism and superstition." There is no evidence whatever by which Fryxell can prove this assertion.
(18) On the same page Fryxell says that "he was inclined to rationalism," because he then "shewed a certain inclination to uphold salvation by works, at the same time with salvation by faith." Those who uphold the pure doctrine of Scripture Fryxell calls "rationalists."
(19) Fryxell, who when writing his Life of Swedenborg was himself eighty-two years old, says of Swedenborg on p. 154, "Certainly his memory must have been here at fault, probably by the debility of age, for in making the above statement to Beyer he was over eighty years old."
(20) On p. 197 he states that "towards the close of his life, viz. In his 'True Christian Religion,' Swedenborg approached more towards the views taught by the state-church of Sweden"!!! This is a mere assertion without any foundation.
(21) On p. 204 in a footnote Fryxell says, that the date of the "Spiritual Diary" is uncertain. We were not aware of this.
(22) On p. 188 he says concerning the doctrine of correspondence that "this doctrine," according to Swedenborg, "had been communicated to Enoch, but that since it had been lost by men." Swedenborg makes no statement about Enoch.
(23) On the same page he says, "Swedenborg did not explain how Moses could write his books which are filled with correspondences." Swedenborg has explained this over and over again in his work entitled "Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture," and also in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture in the "True Christian Religion."
(24) On p. 164 he says, "There is not a single proof that he interested himself in the fine arts, music, painting, sculpture.
Fryxell did not study Swedenborg's Itinerarium (Documents 205, and 206), which on almost every page bears testimony of the interest he took in all the fine arts.
(25) On p. 194 he declares that Swedenborg "continued his explanation of the Book of Revelation only to chapter XIX." He does not seem to have the least knowledge of Swedenborg's work the "Apocalypse Revealed," where the whole of the Revelation is explained.
Fifthly. When conflicting evidence is produced, or when an historian has to examine testimony which is borne respecting unusual phenomena, he is expected to act the part of an impartial, unbiassed judge, and to pass his judgment in accordance with the evidence that is presented, and not according to his own prejudices, his likes and dislikes. This principle Fryxell has violated in the following cases:
(26) On p. 237, in a footnote, Fryxell maintains that Kant's Letter to Madame von Knobloch was written before and not after his Trume eines Geistersehers, ignoring the complete proof to the contrary which was furnished by Dr. Im. Tafel in Part IV of his Urkunden, and which has been reproduced with additions in Document 272 of the present work.
(27) On p. 185 he declares that the fact concerning the "Conflagration in Stockholm," constituting Document 273, is "imperfectly affirmed;" thus setting completely aside the result of Kant's investigation which he made on the spot, and concerning which he wrote to Madame von Knobloch, "What can be brought forward against the authenticity of this occurrence [the conflagration in Stockholm]? My friend who wrote this to me has examined all, not only in Stockholm, but also, about two months ago, in Gottenburg, where he is well acquainted with the most respectable houses, and where he could obtain the most authentic and complete information, for only a very short time has elapsed since [1759]; and most of the inhabitants are still alive who were eye-witnesses of this occurrence." Yet Fryxell declares this circumstance to be "imperfectly affirmed."
(28) In the same category he places "a few other relations," among which is the story of the "Lost Receipt" (Document 274), of which he likewise declares that "it is imperfectly affirmed," although its principal features are affirmed by nine independent witnesses, among whom is Letocard, the Secretary of the Dutch legation, who was present when this affair took place, and Kant's friend, who examined all on the spot in Stockholm.
(29) In respect to the "Queen's Story" (Document 275) he sets aside the testimony of the Academician Thiebault, of Count Höpken, and Count Tessin, who derived their information immediately from the Queen herself and from Swedenborg, and he adopts the account of the "Berlinische Monatsschrift," as endorsed by Nordin; and he adopts even all the false historical statements of Nordin, and his chronological errors, which we have exposed in Document 276, p. 676.
(30) In examining the charge of insanity brought against Swedenborg, Fryxell is guilty of hearing only one side of the question. On the authority of Mr. White he quotes the testimony of Mathesius, which the latter says he derived "word for word" from Brockmer, and he ignores the fact that the whole of Mathesius' testimony was declared false by Brockmer himself. This rebutting testimony of Brockmer is contained in Dr. Im. Tafel's Urkunden, &c., Part I, p. 160 et seq., and also in the English edition of his Documents. The whole of this charge is examined in the light of the original sources in Document 270, pp. 581 to 612.
Seventhly. An historian of the nineteenth century is expected to be unprejudiced and liberal, and free from bigotry and intolerance. Fryxell, on the contrary, in his Biography of Swedenborg shows himself to be prejudiced, bigoted, and intolerant.
(31) That Fryxell in entering upon Swedenborg's biography was not free from prejudice, and that his object was not to find out the truth in respect to Swedenborg, but to confirm a preconceived notion which he had formed respecting him; that therefore he appears before us not in the light of an impartial judge, but of a special pleader, appears from the following consideration: The preconceived notion which he sought to confirm is that Swedenbog's character was a mixture of mysticism and rationalism; or as he states his theory on p. 154, "the foundations of Swedenborgianism are two essential, though altogether contradictory, constituents, which were developed simultaneously in him, viz., a rationalistic doctrine of religion on the one hand, and an irrational spirit-seeing on the other;" and in order to establish this theory Fryxell twists and perverts the genuine facts furnished by Swedenborg's biography, and invests new facts himself.
(32) Fryxell's bigotry is proved by his calling everything "rationalistic," that differs from the doctrines accepted by the established Church of Sweden.
And finally, (33) his intolerance is shown by his condemning as foolish and irrational everything in Swedenborg's writings that he himself does not understand, e. g. his doctrine of correspondence.
We have considered it our duty to make this thorough exposure of the nature of Fryxell's Life of Swedenborg, on account of his occupying in the eyes of the world a commanding position as a Swedish historian; on which account men generally feel more inclined than they otherwise would, to regard as important the opinions and views which he entertains respecting his great fellow-countryman.
NOTE 255.
COUNT Rudensköld.
Count Rudensköld, Count and Senator, was born in 1698 in bo, where his father was bishop. After finishing his studies in the University of Upsal he entered the diplomatic service of Sweden, and in the capacity of a secretary of legation and charg d'affaires he was at the courts of Vienna and of Poland. After his return home in 1738 he was appointed ambassador to Berlin. In 1756 he became chancellor of the court, and two years later president of the College of Commerce. In 1761 he was made senator by the party of the Hats, an office he filled until 1765. In 1770 he was created a count and died in 1783. He was a member of almost all the learned bodies in Sweden, and when Gustavus III ascended the throne in 1772, he became his successor as chancellor of the University of Upsal. He had a great reputation for honesty, purity, and nobility of character.
It was count Rudensköld who addressed to Swedenborg the question concerning the Prince of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld, which he answered in Document 277.
NOTE 256
LARS VON Engeström.
Count Lars von Engeström was the son of Bishop Dr. Engeström of Schonen, and was born in Lund, in 1751. After passing through the university of Lund he entered the diplomatic service of Sweden, where he was employed in various capacities until at last from 1798 to 1803 he was Swedish ambassador at the Court of Berlin. Becoming dissatisfied with the government of Gustavus IV [Adolphus], he removed to Poland to the estates of his wife, who was a Polish countess. In 1809 he was called back to Sweden on the change of the Swedish dynasty. He was very much in favour of Carl Bernadotte, as Crown-Prince of Sweden, and in 1810 was appointed Prime Minister of Sweden. In 1824 he resigned his dignities in Sweden, and retired to his Castle of Jankowitz in Prussian Poland, where he died in 1826.
Count von Engeström's mother was a daughter of Archbishop Jacob Benzelius,7 and thus he became related to the Benzelii and Benzelstjernas.
From Mathias Benzelstjerna, his mother's brother he inherited a large and valuable library which was especially rich in documents concerning Swedenborg. Lars von Engeström during his life-time appointed a librarian, and made his library accessible to the public. By royal permission this library has now been embodied with the Royal Library in Stockholm. Many important documents of the present collection have been derived from it, viz. Documents 1, 3, 137, 138, 139, 141, 167, A, 277, 300, 302, 303.
NOTE 257
REV. F. OKELY.
The Rev. Francis Okely, whose testimony concerning Swedenborg is contained in Document 278, was, according to Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, "A learned, but somewhat enthusiastic divine." The same authority states, that "he was born in 1718, and educated at the Charterhouse, and at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took his B. A. in 1739. At this time he appears to have conceived those notions which interrupted his regular advancement, and was ordained deacon in the Moravian Church. He afterwards offered himself as a candidate for priest's orders in the Church of England; but, when the bishop intimated the invalidity of his first orders, Mr. Okely would not be ordained priest on such terms, and therefore adhered, through life, to the Moravian congregations, and was highly esteemed by the few who lived in communion with him, on account of his piety, benign temper, and liberal sentiments. He died at Bedford on May 9, 1794, in his seventy-sixth year. The peculiar turn of his mind may be understood from the titles of his publications: (1) A translation from the High German, of 'Twenty-one Discourses, or Dissertations, upon the Augsburg Confession of Faith, delivered by the Ordinary of the Brethren's Churches before the seminary,' 1754, 8vo. (2) 'Psalmorum aliquot Davidis Metaphrasis Grca Joannis Serrani,' 1770, 12mo. (3) 'The Nature and Necessity of the new creature in Christ, stated and described according to the heart's experience and true practice, by Johanna Eleonora de Mellari:' translated from the German, 1772, 8vo. (4) 'The Divine Visions of John Engelbrecht,' 1781, 2 vols., 8vo. (5) 'A faithful Narrative of God's gracious dealing with Hiel,' 1781, 8vo. (6) 'A Display of God's Wonders, done upon the person, &c., of John Engelbrecht,' 1781. (7) 'The indispensible necessity of Faith, in order to the pleasing of God: being the substance of a discourse preached at Eydon in Northamptonshire,' 1781, 8vo."
In the "Noble" Library of the New Jerusalem Church, Camden Road, London, is a volume containing three of the minor works of Swedenborg, viz. De Equa Albo; De Ultimo Judicio; De Telluribus in Universo. This volume originally belonged to Francis Okely who purchased it in 1768. On the fly-leaves of this volume he carefully copied out a Review of Swedenborg's Writings, which appeared in the "Monthly Review" for June, 1770 and likewise the Account of Swedenborg in the "Arminian Magazine" for 1781, which is contained in Document 270, p. 686 et seq. At the end of this article Mr. Okely wrote the following N. B. (Nota Bene), "I, Francis Okely, transcribed this, September 4, 1781, meaning nothing more or less thereby than that every impartial reader should see everything as well against as for the Baron's singular pretension. The decision is therefore left to the reader's own discrimination in Divine light."
On the last page he writes as follows, "An author as difficult to approve, as it would be totally to condemn. See Acts v 36 et seq.; 1 Thess. V, 21; 1 John iv, 1."
"Certainly we ought to beware of intruding into those things we have not seen, being vainly puffed up by the fleshly mind, Col. ii, 18. If we knew all real mysteries and all knowledge, and had all faith so as to remove mountains, and have no charity, we are nothing, 1 Cor. xiii, 2. The end of the commandments is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned, 1 Tim. i, 5; John iii, 32."
"Dr. Meisner and Dr. Gerhard meeting at Wittenberg began to discourse of Jacob Behmen, expressing how greatly they admired the continued harmony of Scriptures produced by him at his examination (before the Elector of Saxony), and that they would not for all the world have served his enemies' malice in censuring him: 'For (says Dr. Meisner) who knows but God may have designed him for some extraordinary work, and how can with justice pass judgment against that we understand not? For surely he seems to be a man of wonderful high gift of the spirit, though we cannot at present, from any ground of certainty, approve or disapprove of many things he holds.'* This expresses in some sort my sentiments concerning Baron Swedenborg."
* See Preface to the last fourth edition of J. Behmen's works, p. XIX.
In concluding his letter to the Rev. J. Wesley, which contains his testimony concerning Swedenborg (Document 278), Mr. Okely says: "I heartily wish, that the real designs which as Omnipotent and Omniscient God of Love might have, either by him (Swedenborg), or by any other of his sincere servants of whatsoever sort or kind, may be truly obtained.
May His Kingdom come, and His will be done once in earth, as it is done in heaven!
"I thought it proper to express thus much in answer to yours, without desiring you to adopt any of my sentiments."
NOTE 258.
PROFESSOR Lidén.
John Henry Lidén, who contributed to the Almnna Tidningar for 1770 the account of Swedenborg contained in Document 282, was born in Linköping in 1741, where his father was "lector" of theology. After having most honourably finished his course at the University of Upsal, where he was publicly applauded by Queen Louisa Ulrica for a disputation he held in her presence, he travelled abroad between 1768 and 1770; on which occasion he made the acquaintance of Swedenborg. On his return home he was appointed professor extraordinary (adjunkt) of history in the University of Lund, But in the very next year he was attacked by a disease, which lamed him for life, wherefore he resigned his professorship, and retired to Norrkping, where he spent the remaining nineteen years of his life. His sick-room became, so to say, a centre of the literary and scientific men of Sweden, where he received visits from the most distinguished among them. He also followed with a lively interest all new developments in science and literature. As he had considerable private means at his disposal, he acted in some measure the part of a patron, and encouraged the cause of learning and education by liberal contributions. His library which consisted of 5326 volumes and 500 engravings he presented to the association of East Gothland in Upsal, but it was soon after incorporated in the University Library. He died in 1793. Among his published writings is a volume containing the correspondence between Gustavus Benzelstjerna65 and his brother Ericus Benzelius,6 which was edited by him in 1791.
NOTE 259.
ARCHBISHOP TROILIUS.
Archbishop Samuel Troilius, the subject of the jocular anecdote recorded in Document 291, no. 6 (p. 726), was born in 1706. After passing through the University of Upsal, on account of his brilliant talent for preaching he soon received a call to one of the churches in the capital, where he remained until 1751, when he was appointed Bishop of Westers.
In 1757 he was elected archbishop, and died in 1764. In politics he was in favour of the same policy as Swedenborg advocated in 1760; but in church matters he was ultra-orthodox, and distinguished himself by the severe measures he undertook to suppress superstition in Dalecarlia.
NOTE 260.
CHRISTIAN JOHANSEN.
The name of Christian Johansen is most intimately connected with the early history of the New Church in Sweden. He was a manufacturer enjoying the title "Directeur," and lived in Eskilstuna, the Swedish Sheffield. In a letter which he addressed to Magister Tybeck,302 and which is dated December 23, 1782, he says, "Fifteen years ago [in 1767] I first heard the new voice from on high, the message of the Lord of heaven. I accepted it at once with inexpressible joy; for I was prepared for it. At that time I felt as if I had been transported to heaven. Since then the Lord has been pleased to lead me through strange states of mind, through joy and affliction." He was deeply versed in the writings of the New Church, and from all parts of Sweden the friends of the New Church used to write to him, and ask him to explain difficult passages for them, or give them advice in matters of life. On all questions whether theological, philosophical, or practical, he was always ready with wise and intelligent letters. His letters to Sturzenbecker, Dean Knös, Magister Tybeck, Wadstrjm, and others, circulated among all the friends of the New Church in Sweden, and were copied by them. The editor of these Documents has now before him one of these collections of Johansen's letters, which extend from 1780 to 1792. In the Report of the Manchester Printing Society for 1817 the following tribute is paid to his character: "Christian Johansen, who was living three years ago, was celebrated for goodness, piety, and for profound research, beyond all others, into the Writings of the New Dispensation; possessing besides such knowledge in the different branches of science as made him generally esteemed by his fellow-citizens. His acknowledged wisdom obtained for him the unlimited confidence and regard of all the friends of truth, and from his letters to them, as well as from several important tracts upon religious subjects which he wrote, there resulted great benefit to the cause."
Dr. A. Kahl describes Johansen (Nya Kyrkan, III, p. 111) in the following words: "Directeur Christian Johansen, was a worker in steel in Eskilstuna, and thus like Jacob Boehme, the shoemaker in Grlitz of yore, by his calling was a mechanic.
But his intellectual and moral endowments raised him immensely over the sphere of those who chiefly busy themselves with physical labour. The workshop was for him too contracted. His thoughts pressed into higher and brighter regions; and his heart attached itself altogether to spiritual and celestial things. Like the above-named Teuton philosopher, Johansen was even well-read in theology and philosophy, and by nature endowed with an unusual profundity and a fine discrimination in matters belonging to ethics and religion. According to the testimony of all who knew him more intimately, his character as it was ultimately formed, bore the stamp of Christian forbearance, piety, and humility, and was well nigh angelic. He was, indeed, what we should like to call 'a spiritual genius.' Besides this he was well versed in the modern, classical, and oriental languages, and therein was a match for many celebrated philologists; and, moreover, he was as familiar with Swedenborg's doctrine of correspondences and the higher understanding of his writings in general, as was the Grlitz theologian with the nomenclature of Paracelsus and the writings of the early mystics. It is a loss to the New Church that many of Johansen's articles and dissertations have been lost, and that those that are still preserved, are only in MS." One of these specimens, a spiritual explanation of Luke xvi, 1-10, which is written in Latin, Dr. Kahl communicates in his Nya Kyrkan, Part III, pp. 112-118.
Johansen furnished to our collection Documents 285 and 286.
The "young Johansen" who is mentioned in Document 309, p. 807, as having been employed in 1786 in copying the MSS. of Swedenborg was either Christian Johansen, or his brother Anders. The former in a list of the members of the Exegetic Philanthropic Society, which C. F. Nordenskjöld communicated to Dr. Im. Tafel, is described as a "manufacturer," and A. Johansen as his "brother and partner in business." In the beginning of the present century Anders Johansen spent several years in England, and returned to Sweden in 1814. He is spoken of very highly in some English and Swedish letters of that time which the Editor found in Stockholm among the letters addressed to the Society Pro Fide et Charitate, concerning which see Note 119.
NOTE 261.
PROFESSOR SCHERER.
Concerning Professor Scherer, from whom is derived Document 289, Dr. Im. Tafel in the fourth Volume of his Documents concerning Swedenborg furnishes the following particulars: Dr. John Benedict von Scherer, professor of the French language in the University of Tübingen, was born in Strasburg in 1751. After finishing his studies in the university of his native place, and taking the degree of doctor of philosophy, he travelled abroad, and spent some time in Jena, Leipzig, and Freiberg, devoting himself to jurisprudence. After obtaining the degree of doctor of laws, he entered into the diplomatic service of France, and at various times was attached to the embassies at St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Berlin. At last he received and appointment in the department of foreign affairs in Versailles; but between 1780 and 1790 he was released from the office at his own request, and retired to Strasburg. There he soon obtained a place among the civic authorities, and was made a member of the town-senate. After the French revolution he went to Baden-Baden on account of his health, and while there was put into the list of the migrs, and thus expatriated. For a time he was employed in the war-department of Austria, but at last accepted the professorship of the French language in Tübingen; and it was there that Dr. Im. Tafel made his acquaintance between 1818-1821, and derived from him his information about Swedenborg.
NOTE 262.
PROFESSOR ATTERBOM.
In his celebrated work Svenska Siare och Skalder (Swedish Seers and Poets) Atterbom introduced an article on Swedenborg, in which is contained the anecdote communicated in Document 290. On p. 721 we stated our reasons why we cannot attach to it implicit credence. Atterbom was the head of the romantic school of poetry and criticism which arose in Sweden at the beginning of the present century, and as a lyric poet he occupies one of the highest places among the poets of Sweden. From the Svenskt Biographiskt Handlexicon we gather the following particulars of his life: Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom was born January 19, 1790. Soon after his arrival at Upsal in conjunction with some of his friends, who like him were opposed to the merely intellectual and didactic style of poetry borrowed from France, he instituted the Aurora Club, among whose members besides Atterbom, were Palmblad, Ingelgren, Hedborn, Elgstrm, and several others.
In 1710 they started a periodical, called "Fosforos" (Phosphorus, the light-bearer) as the exponent of their ideas, after which as a party or a school they were called the "Fosforists." From 1812 to 1822 Atterbom published the "Poetical Almanac," which contained many of his smaller poetical effusions. The years 1817 to 1819 he spent abroad in Italy and Germany mainly on account of his health. On his return home he was appointed German tutor of prince Oscar. In 1824 he was appointed extraordinary, and in 1828 ordinary, professor of theoretical philosophy; but in 1835 he exchanged the professorship of philosophy for that of thetics and modern literature. He died in July, 1855.
NOTE 263.
BARON VON BESKOW.
Bernhard von Beskow, the Swedish poet, critic, and historian was born in 1796. He distinguished himself at an early period by his poetical effusions, and in 1824 obtained the great prize of the Swedish Academy by a poem entitled "Sweden's Ancestry" (Sveriges anor). In 1828 he was chosen a member of the Swedish Academy, and in 1834 became its permanent secretary. In this capacity he wrote his Biography of Swedenborg, which was read before the Swedish Academy, and which is justly admired for the impartial and unprejudiced spirit in which it is written, and for the exactness and accuracy of its facts-the very reverse in this respect of Fryxell's production (see Note 254). Baron von Beskow died on October 18, 1868.
NOTE 264.
DR. WETTERBERGH.
Carl Anton Wetterbergh, known in Sweden under the pseudonym of Uncle Adam, was born in 1804. He studied medicine, and for many years acted as army-surgeon. In 1840 he appeared as an author, and in a short time became one of the most popular writers in Sweden. In 1848 appeared his sketches, called "Attartaflan," which contain the attractive sketch of Swedenborg's gardener-folks, contained in Document 292. His collected writings appeared in ten volumes from 1869-1874.
From 1862 to 1871 he edited the "Linea" a well-known Swedish magazine for children, which contains his last contributions to literature. Since 1871 he has ceased to write.
NOTE 265.
G. SWEDERUS.
George Swederus, who furnished to our collection no. 2 of Document 291, was born in 1796. After passing through the University of Upsal, he devoted himself to political economy. He has written a great number of books and newspaper articles. The number of his original writings, without counting his translations from other languages, is estimated at fifty. The old lady, whom he mentions in his account, and whose maiden name was Hellstedt, is his own mother, Hedwig Juliana Hellstedt.
NOTE 266.
H. G. PORTHAN.
Henry Gabriel Porthan, according to the "Biographiskt Lexicon," vol. XVI, p. 338, was the Finnish scholar who figures in Atterbom's anecdote about Swedenborg, viz. Document 290. The same is stated by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson in his "Life of Swedenborg" (p. 160), where he says, "Bishop----, Porthan's disciple, and Atterbom's friend, and still alive in February, 1844, is the authority for the narration, as Professor Atterbom has himself informed us." On p. 721 we have stated our objections to the authenticity of some portions of this narrative.
Porthan was born in Finland in 1739. In 1754 he graduated with the highest honours in the University of bo, where soon after he was appointed lecturer on eloquence, and in 1772 librarian. In 1777 he was elected professor of eloquence, and in that capacity he became one of the most distinguished professors in the history of the University of bo.
According to the "Biographiskt Lexicon" he entered upon his journey abroad in 1779; thus seven years after Swedenborg's departure from this world. And even his biographer expresses doubts as to whether he came as far as England, as he had to borrow the money for his journey. This throws an additional doubt on the genuineness of the anecdote related concerning him by Atterbom.
NOTE 267.
WM. WHITE.
See Note 308.
NOTE 268.
C. BENZELSTJERNA.
Carl Benzelstjerna, who in the name of Swedenborg's heirs transferred the MSS. of Emanuel Swedenborg to the care of the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm (see Document 304, p. 786), was the son of Lars Benzelstjerna (Note 8) and Swedenborg's sister Hedwig. See Document 9, no. 5, p. 91.
NOTE 269.
P. W. WARGENTIN.
Peter Wm. Wargentin, a disciple of Klingenstjerna293 and Celsius, was an astronomer and mathematician of note. In 1749 he was appointed Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, which office he filled for thirty-four years. He received the Swedenborg MSS. from his heirs in 1772; and by his permission some of these MSS. were taken abroad in 1783, in order to be printed in England (see Document 309, p. 805). Among his letters, which are preserved in the Academy of Sciences, the Editor of these Documents discovered one that was addressed to him by Count Höpken after Swedenborg's death; it is printed in Note 28, Vol. I, p. 633. Wargentin was born in 1717, and he died in 1783.
NOTE 270.
J. WILCKE.
John Carl Wilcke, was Wargentin's successor as secretary to the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, and in that capacity he prepared the Official Catalogue of the Swedenborg MSS., which constitutes Document 308. He was born in 1732 in Stockholm, where his father was minister of the German congregation. In 1759 he was appointed "lector" in experimental physics in Stockholm, and in 1770 received the title of professor. In 1784 he became secretary to the Academy, and died in 1796.
NOTE 271.
J. BERZELIUS.
Jacob Berzelius, the father of modern chemistry, was secretary to the Academy of Sciences from 1818 till the time of his death in 1848. In the capacity he wrote a report on the condition of the Swedenborg MSS. in 1841 (see Document 308, p. 801), and he was instrumental in having those of the "Missing Manuscripts," which are discussed in Document 309, and which had found their way to England, restored to the Academy. Several of his letters are contained in the said Documents, viz., on pp. 818, 824, 828, and 830.
Berzelius was born in 1779, and died in 1848. Being an unprejudiced and high-minded man of science, he was able to appreciate Swedenborg's science. The judgment which he bore in respect to Swedenborg's little work entitled "Om Watnens Hödg," &c., is contained in Document 313, p. 896. On his Regnum Animale he expressed himself in a letter to Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, the English translator of the work, as follows: "I have gone through some parts of 'the Animal Kingdom,' which have interested me especially; and I have been surprised to find how the mind of Swedenborg has preceded the present state of knowledge, writing his work at the time he did. I hope the anatomists and physiologists of our day will profit by this work, both for the sake of extending their ideas, and of rendering justice to the genius of Swedenborg." In another letter he says, "I am surprised at the great knowledge displayed by Swedenborg in a subject that a professed metallurgists would not have been supposed to have made an object of study, and in which, as in all he undertook, he was in advance of his age."
NOTE 272.
MANOAH SIBLY.
See Note 240.
NOTE 273.
REV. J. PROUD.
The Rev. Jos. Proud, one of the early ministers of the New Church, appears in the "Swedenborg Documents" as the owner at one time of the original MS. of the Diarium Minus (see Document 309, p. 812).
The following particulars respecting him are mainly derived from a notice of his life from the pen of the Rev. Samuel Noble, which appeared in the "Intellectual Repository" for 1826, p. 347, and from a printed sermon preached at his decease by the Rev, Edward Madeley of Birmingham.
He was born on March 22, 1745, at Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire, where his father was a tradesman, and at the same time a preacher in the connection of the General Baptists. Mr. Proud commenced his pulpit exercises in the year l768, being then twenty-three years of age; and having continued to preach with zeal and ability for the space of seven or eight years he was admitted by ordination into the regular ministry of the General Baptist Denomination. His first engagements were at Wisbeach in Cambridgeshire; but he was shortly removed to the city of Norwich, where a commodious chapel was erected purposely for him by Mr. Hunt, who acted with him as his colleague in the ministry. This was in 1789.
In the same year Mr. Ralph Mather, who had previously belonged to the Quaker Denomination, and Mr. Joseph Whithingham Salmon, who had been a Methodist Local Preacher, having been brought to a knowledge of the truth in the doctrines of the New Church, and being inflamed with an ardent zeal to promote its diffusion, undertook, at their own expense, a missionary journey through England. When they came to Norwich, Mr. Hunt gave them permission preach in his chapel. On hearing them Mr. Proud opposed their doctrines with the utmost vehemence, and made every effort in his power to prevent their success. Mr. Hunt was more favourably inclined, and held several conferences with the strangers. This rendered Mr. Proud extremely uneasy, and one clay, when he knew Mr. Hunt and the New Church missionaries were together, he burst into the room, and exhorted his colleague, in the most strenuous manner to "have nothing to do with those men or their doctrines." Mr. Noble says, he heard Mr. Proud say, that he used those very words. Immediately on his retiring--such is Mr. Noble's recollection of this occurrence--he felt great agitation of mind: a doubt rushed upon him, that it might be possible he was opposing the truth: he retired into a room by himself, fell on his knees, and prayed devoutly that he might obtain Divine direction, and be guided to a right decision: he afterwards opened his Bible, when this passage met his eye: "Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously; for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it will be told you" (Hab. I, 5): the words struck him powerfully: he took them as a proof of his incredulity and prejudiced opposition: he determined, therefore, to read the writings of the New Church with a candid mind.
He did so. He obtained the "True Christian Religion," and began to study the doctrines with a glowing and increasing delight. He perceived and acknowledged their heavenly nature.
Having thus discovered "the pearl of great price," he joyfully and fearlessly proclaimed the glad tidings to all around him, under the pleasant anticipation that all would like himself be equally gratified and benefitted. But he raised around him a host of opposition, and alarmed at the great change in his sentiments, the General Baptists drove him from their body.
From 1791-1797 Mr. Proud preached alternately in Birmingham and Manchester, and, especially in the former place, drew large congregations. In 1797 he was invited to preach in London, at Cross Street, Hatton Garden. "Mr. Proud's sermons," says Mr. Noble, who then attracted to the New Church by his preaching, "presented the leading doctrines of the New Church in a very striking and convincing manner, and exposed the opposite errors with great strength and energy; while in pressing home moral considerations they were powerfully persuasive; but his delivery, at the time of which we are speaking, notwithstanding some provincialisms of accent, certainly did possess an extraordinary charm: his voice, look, action, and whole manner, were strongly calculated to rivet attention, and to send home what he said both tot he understandings and the hearts of his hearers. The consequence was, that many who came to hear him became affectionate and steady receivers of the doctrines of the New Church; though it must be confessed, that the attachment of many others was more to the man than the doctrines, whence, after a while, they fell away.
"In 1799 Mr. Proud removed from the church in Cross Street to the still larger and more elegant chapel in York Street, St. James's Square; where he was also attended by large congregations, especially in the evening; when, except in the middle of the summer, there seldom were fewer than 1000 persons in the chapel. Here he continued fourteen years; and though during the latter part of the time the congregations were not so numerous as at first, they always were very considerable. But at the expiration of that period, a greater rent being demanded in case of a renewal of the lease than it was thought possible to pay, the Society removed to a small place in Lisle Street, Leicester Square; a measure which proved imprudent; for the consequent diminution of numbers and of income became than commensurate with the diminution of the expenditure: in consequence of which, difficulties arising, Mr. Proud determined upon retiring once more to Birmingham; whither he went in 1814, and where he remained till his death in August, 1886.
NOTE 274.
C. G. VON BRINKMAN.
Carl Gustav von Brinkman, the President of the Royal Academy of Sciences, who was interested in the restoration of the Swedenborg MSS. to that institution (see document 309, p. 825), was born in 1764. He was a poet, and a man of great learning. At one time he was Swedish minister at the court of Great Britain. He was one of the eighteen members of the Swedish Academy, and was possessed of a most valuable library which, after his death in 1847, enriched the University library of Upsal.
NOTE 275.
J. F. Fåhraeus.
John Frederic Frus, who is mentioned in Document 309, p. 832 in connection with the MS. of Swedenborg's letters to Dr. Beyer, occupied a prominent place in the civil service of Sweden; and was instrumental in introducing many reforms into it. In 1847 he became councillor of state (statsrd), and in 1856 was made chief of the custom-house department. He was ennobled in 1857, and died in 1865.
His wife was a daughter of Mrten Sturzenbecher, who was one of Sweden's philosophers. The wife of Sturzenbecher, Petronella L. Enander, was a relative of Dr. Beyer,22 her mother's name having been Mr. Chr. Beyer (see "Biografiskt Lexicon," XVI, p. 177).
NOTE 276.
MARTIN SCHURIGIUS.
Extracts from the works of Schurigius are contained in Codices 53 and 88 of the Swedenborg MSS. (see Document 310, pp. 855 and 873). Martin Schurig was a physician living in Dresden in the beginning of the eighteenth century. His works were published between 1720 and 1744. Swedenborg appears to have made considerable use of his learned compilations. In Codices 53 and 88 he has made excerpts from his works bearing the following titles: Embryologia, Syllepsiologia, Parthenologia, Spermatologia, Gyncologia, and Chylologia.
NOTE 277.
LEEUWENHOEK.
Excerpts from Leeuwenhoek's works are contained in Codices 53 and 57; those in Codex 53 have been photo-lithographed in vol. VI of the Swedenborg MSS., pp. 177-184. Antony von Leeuwenhoek was a celebrated Dutch microscopist, and maker of microscopes; born at Delft in 1632, died in 1723. He devoted himself unintermittingly for fifty years to the use of the microscope, apparently without any other end than the accumulation of observations; for he neither attempted to found a theory, nor to draw conclusions: nevertheless, he pursued his minute researches with too much singleness, not to elicit many facts which were of use to others. His works were mostly published in Dutch, and afterwards translated into Latin; they are as follows: (1) Arcana Natur detecta, Delft, 1695; Leyden 1722; (2) Continuatio Arcanorum Natur detectorum, Delft, 1697; Leyden, 1722; (3) Epistol Physiologic, Delft, 1719.
NOTE 278.
SWAMMERDAM.
Swedenborg made great use of Swammerdam's works, especially of his Biblia Natur; in fact he wrote a commentary on a greater part of that work (see document 313, no. 70, p. 937). Additional excerpts are contained in codex 57 (Document 310, p. 359). John Swammerdam, the celebrated Dutch anatomist and entomologist, was born in Amsterdam in 1637. He introduced the use of wax injections, and invented the now received method of making dry preparations of hollow organs. He was an admirable microscopist, and dissector of minute objects, and employed many peculiar and ingenious instruments and methods in his researchers. Notwithstanding his scientific studies, he appears in the Biblia Natur to have constantly kept in view the end of displaying the wisdom and power of God as manifested in the animal creation. In the latter part of his life he became a follower of Madame Bourignon, and an admirer of Jacob Boehem,40 and ultimately forsook all his physical and anatomical studies, in order to attend to his spiritual concerns. His great work, Biblia Natur, sive Historia Insectorum, in classes certas reducta, was published in folio, Leyden, 1737, in Dutch and Latin, with a life of the author by Boerhaave, who bought the manuscript of the work, and printed it at his own expense.
The Latin version was executed by H. D. Gaubius, respecting whom Boerhaave says, "perhaps it would have been a hard matter, if not impossible, to find another translator equal to the task." The work was translated into English, folio, London, 1758, (as "The Book of Nature; or the History of Insects: reduced to distinct classes, &c. Translated from the Dutch and Latin original edition, by Thomas Floyd. Revised and improved by notes from Reaumur and others, by John Hill, M. D.") His own copy of the work Swedenborg presented in 1760 to Count Höpken (see Document 218, p. 233). His thoughts on reading Swammerdam's Biblia Natur, written in 1750, are contained in Document 299, p. 750.
NOTE 279.
HEISTER
Heister's anatomical works were largely used by Swedenborg in the preparation of his OEconomia Regni Animalis, and in his Regnum Animale. Excerpts from his works are contained in Codex 57 (see Document 310, p. 859). Lawrence Heister was a German anatomist and surgeon, born at Frankfort on the Main in 1673, died at Helmstdt in 1758. He regarded anatomy as the handmaid of theology and has the following fine passage respecting the ends of anatomy: "The end of anatomy is manifold; yet its primary end is the knowledge and admiration of the wonderful works of the Supreme Being in the body of man and of other animals; since the contemplation of the most skilful organism, the astonishing form, connection, communication, action, and use of each of its parts demonstrate in a most evident manner not only the existence, but also the immense and stupendous wisdom of God in the face of the atheists, and invite man to His worship and veneration; wherefore the primary end of the anatomy must be the glory of God. In this sense also anatomy may be said to be philosophical, physical, and even theological, and most useful to all genuine students of wisdom and theology" (Compendium Anatomicum, no. 8). Heister's Compendium Anatomicum veterum recentiorumque observationes brevissime complectens, was published in Altorf in 1717; six further editions were published in Germany, in the towns of Altorf, Nuremburg, and Freiberg; also two in Amsterdam, and one in Venice. It was translated into nearly all the languages of Europe. Two editions of it were published in the English language, viz. in 1721, and 1752. Verheyen's Anatomy, which had superseded F. Bartholin's, was in its turn superseded by Heister's, which met with immense and well-merited success, and maintained its ground for a long time in the medical schools of Europe.
Heister wrote several special treatises on the application of anatomy to theology (De Utilate Anatomes in theologia generatim, eight parts, Altorf and Helmstdt, 1717-1730).
NOTE 280.
MORGAGNI.
Morgagni was one of the chief authorities consulted by Swedenborg in his anatomical treatises. Extracts from his works are contained in Codex 57 (Document 310, p. 859). Joannes Baptiste Morgagni was born at Forli in Romagna in 1682, and died in 1771. According to Haller, he did not describe the parts of the human body as if their form was one and constant; but noting the varieties in different subjects, gathered from a number of accordant instances what might be considered as the usual fabric; and in thus eliciting generalized facts excelled all previous anatomists, perhaps with the exception of Eustachius. His Adversaria Anatomica prima was published in Bologna in 1706. It is a small work, but as Haller says, almost entirely consisting of new discoveries, or of clearer descriptions of parts than had been given previously. According to Dr. Wilkinson, Morgagni's account of the appendices ventriculorum in the larynx has been overlooked by later anatomists, and the same cavities have recently been brought forward as a new discovery under the name of sacculi laryngis. Five other collections of Adversaria were afterwards published by Morgagni in 1717 and 1719; and they were published altogether in Padua in 1719, and two editions of them were published in Leyden in 1723 and 1740.
NOTE 281.
BOERHAAVE.
The works of Boerhaave, who was the most celebrated physician of his age, were constantly used by Swedenborg in his physiological investigations. It is also stated that he attended his lectures at Leyden; but this is impossible, as Boerhaave died in 1737, and when Swedenborg travelled in Holland in 1736 he did not pass through Leyden, and in Amsterdam he stayed only two days, while altogether he spent only a fortnight in the whole of the Netherlands (see Document 206, pp. 84-90).
Extracts from Boerhaave's writings are contained in Codex 57 (Document 310, p. 859). Hermann Boerhaave was born in 1668, and died in 1737. He was the author of numerous works of high reputation on medicine and the collateral sciences. His fame is founded upon his Institutiones Medic in usus annu curandis morbis. "Perhaps no book of equal size in the literature of medicine," says Dr. Wilkinson, "involves more thought and learning than the former of the these works. The first portion of it contains an eclectic system of physiology mechanical, chemical, and humoral. Boerhaave contends for the existence of the animal spirits, elaborated in the cortex of the cerebrum, and adduces many rational grounds for this belief." Dr. Wilkinson says further, "It is clear that Swedenborg was a diligent student of Boerhaave's works, and his style in many parts of the Regnum Animale cannot fail to remind the reader of the rapid manner and full sentences of Boerhaave: see as examples Swedenborg's descriptions of the spleen, the cuticle, and the cutis. To Boerhaave the world is greatly indebted for the preservation of Swammerdam's posthumous works." Haller terms him "The common preceptor of Europe at the beginning of the eighteenth century;" and says of him as a physiologist, that "he was wont to recognize many causes contributing to every function, and not, as sectaries do, to rest in some single cause, to the suppression of all the rest."
NOTE 282.
A. NUCK.
Anthony Nuck, a German by birth, but professor of anatomy at Leyden, was likewise frequently quoted by Swedenborg. Excerpts from his writings are contained in Codex 57 (Document 310, p. 859). Nuck was born about 1660, and died in 1692. He skilfully injected the lymphatics with mercury, and made use of the air-pump as an appliance for this purpose. The greater part of Nuck's works was published in 3 vols., 12mo, Lyons, 1722. The whole were collected and published as his Opera Omnia, 2 vols., Leyden, 1733.
NOTE 283.
WINSLOW.
Winslow's great work entitled Exposition anatomique de la structure du corps humain, was more copiously excerpted and extracted from by Swedenborg than any other anatomical work. In Codex 88 the extracts from that work fill upwards of 300 pages (see Document 310, p. 873); those in Codex 57 (Document 310, p. 859) are less extensive. Jacques Benigne Winslow was Danish by birth. He was born at Odensee in the island of Fnen in 1669 and died in Paris in 1760. His anatomical treatise passed through four editions in the French language, through five in the English, and through two in the Latin. Dr. Wilkinson says respecting it, "This treatise, in most of the departments of anatomy, superseded all former manuals. According to Haller, it is the common fountain from which the later, and the French anatomists especially, have gained their anatomy; and it is the model on which the generality of the text-books of that science has been constructed. Winslow changed his religion from Lutheran to Catholic on reading the works of Bossuet, and on this occasion Bossuet gave him the addition of Benigne to his name. Before his time anatomists generally took out of the body the parts they were about to examine, so that the relative situation and mutual connection of the parts were lost and destroyed; and when the cellular tissue was taken away, the very shape was altered. Winslow has the distinguished merit of being the first who described all things in the body in situ and in nexu. He used to dissect the organs under water."
NOTE 284.
ALBINUS.
Albinus, the colleague of Boerhaave and Ruysch in the university of Leyden, is quoted by Swedenborg in Codex 57 (Document 310, p. 859). Haeser in his "History of Medicine," Jena, 1868, says respecting him: "Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, originally Weiss, was placed by his contemporaries in the first half of the last century in the front rank among the anatomists. He was born in 1697, and died in 1770. After finishing his studies at Leyden and Paris, he was so early as 1721 appointed the successor of his former teacher Rau, as professor of anatomy in the University of Leyden.
This professorship he filled for fifty years, and together with the celebrated Boerhaave and Ruysch, he made the medical faculty of the university of Leyden the most distinguished in all Europe." His merit especially lies in the finish of the anatomical drawings by which his anatomical works were illustrated. Almost all these illustrations were drawn and engraved by the great artist Wandelaer.
NOTE 285.
LANCISI.
Extracts from the works of Lancisi on the ganglia are contained in Codex 57 (Document 310, p. 859). He is also abundantly quoted in all the anatomical treatises of Swedenborg. Joannes Maria Lancisi was born in Rome in 1654, and died in 1721. Dr. Wilkinson says concerning him, "He was a man of philosophical tendencies, and the first portion of his work on the motion of the heart is admirable in this respect." His Opera Omni were printed at Geneva in 1718 and 1725, in Venice in 1739, and in Rome in 1745.
NOTE 286.
CASSEBOHM.
John Frederic Cassebohm, while professor in Halle, published in Frankfort on the Oder a "Dissertation on the internal ear" (Diss. De aure interna), 1730; and in Halle during 1734 and 1735 he published six treatises on the "Human Ear" (De aure humana tractatus sex). From these works Swedenborg made extensive excerpts in Codex 58 (Document 310, p. 860). Cassebohm went from Halle to Frankfort on the Oder, and thence to Berlin, where he died comparatively young.
NOTE 287.
MALPIGHI.
Abundant justice is done by Swedenborg to this celebrated Italian anatomist both in his OEconomia Regni Animalis and in his Regnum Animale. He is also quoted in Codex 74 (Document 310, p. 867). Marcellus Malpighi was born in 1628, and died in Rome in 1694. The whole of his works were printed in Venice in 1743 by Govinelli; most of them have likewise been reprinted in Manget's Biblioteca Anatomica.
Several of the best of them were addressed to the Royal Society of London, of which he was an honorary member. "Malpighi," says Dr. Wilkinson, "Wrote in crabbed and difficult Latin, so that it is sometimes almost impossible to guess at his meaning. He was one of the first who made use of the microscope in anatomical investigations, and who endeavoured to penetrate the intimate structure of the viscera experimentally; in this he was very successful, and laid the foundation of our present knowledge of visceral anatomy. His works on the viscera are constantly appealed to in the present day, but have never been translated into English. He was a sagacious observer, and by no means destitute of method, and philosophical instinct. In philosophy, Malpighi was a follower of Borelli, who, according to Haller, was the first that applied mathematics to physiology."
NOTE 288.
WILLIS.
Excerpts on the anatomy of the brain and the nerves from Willis occur in Codex 86 of the Swedenborg MSS., (see Document 310, p. 871); other excerpts occur in Codices 65 and 74 (see Document 310, pp. 866, and 867). Thomas Willis, an English physician and anatomist, was born in 1621, and died in London in 1675. His principal work, Cerebri Anatome cui accessit nervorum descriptio et usus, passed through two editions in England, and through five in Holland; it was also reprinted in Manget's Bibliotheca Anatomica. "This work," says Dr. Wilkinson, "contained a new method of dissecting the brain, and a much more accurate account of its anatomy than had been given previously: it also contained the germs of those modern views of the physiology of the brain which are adopted by the phrenologists. The idea of the brain being a congeries of organs is distinctly recognized. Willis, like Swedenborg, makes the cerebrum the seat of the voluntary movements and intellectual faculties; the cerebellum, of the involuntary movements, like those of the heart. In common with nearly all the great anatomists of former times, Willis held the doctrine of the circulation of the animal spirits." The Opera Omni of Willis appeared in London in 1679; they also appeared in Lyons, Geneva, Amsterdam, and Venice. An English translation appeared in 1681.
NOTE 289.
VIEUSSENS.
Vieussens, together with Willis, is the great authority which Swedenborg followed in his several works on the brain. Excerpts from Vieussens are contained in Codices 65 and 74 (see Document 310, pp. 866 and 867). Raymond Vieussens, a French physician and anatomist, was born in 1641, and died at Montpellier in 1716. His Neurographia Universalis; hoc est omnium corporis humani nervorum, simul ac cerebri, medullque spinalis descriptio anatomica, was published in folio at Lyons in 1685, 1761, and 1774; it was likewise published at Frankfort and Ulm, and at Tolosa. "Vieussens' Neurographia," says Dr. Wilkinson, "was incomparably more ample and faithful than anything on the subject that had been done before it. Haller describes Vieussens as a man of unwearied industry, who pursued his researches on the brain and nerves, which had hitherto been studied almost exclusively in the lower animals, in the human subject; and whose contributions to anatomy were most important. The reader of the Regnum Animale will find much vigorous thought in the Neurographia, particularly on the subject of the animal spirits, respecting which Vieussens has treated at length in several chapters. On this point the views of Swedenborg agree in great part with those of Vieussens."
NOTE 290.
BARTHOLIN.
Thomas Bartholin was a Danish physician and anatomist, born in Copenhagen in 1616, where he died in 1680. In 1641 he published the Institutiones Anatomic of his father Caspar Bartholin. This work between 1641 and 1686 appeared at Leyden, the Hague, and Rotterdam, in ten editions; and likewise in two editions at Lyons; it was also translated into English in 1668. It was the common text book in the schools until the publication of Verheyen's Anatomy in 1693. Swedenborg refers to this work repeatedly in all his anatomical works; excerpts from it also occur in Codex 74 (Document 310, p. 867).
NOTE 291.
RIDLEY.
Henry Ridley, one of the authorities whom Swedenborg consulted in his treatises on the brain (see Document 310, Codex 74, p. 867), was an English anatomist of some note. The work by which he made himself known is entitled: "The Anatomy of the Brain, containing its mechanism and physiology," London, 1695. A Latin edition was published in 1705, and also at Leyden in 1725. Dr. Wilkinson observes that "there is a paper of Ridley's in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' no. 287, detailing a case of vivisection, in which the systolic motion of the brain was observed to be continued and even increased after the division of the dura mater.
NOTE 292.
PROFESSOR QUENSEL.
Professor Conrad Quensel of Lund started some objections to Swedenborg's "Method of finding the Longitude," discussed in Document 313, no. 17, p. 894, and also in Document 311, no. 29, p. 879. He was born in 1676, and distinguished himself in the University of bo by his mathematical talent. In 1704 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the University of Pernan in Livonia. In 1710 he was obliged to flee to Stockholm on account of the approach of the Russians; on arriving in Stockholm he found the pestilence raging there by which he lost his wife and one of his sons. In 1712 he received from Charles XII in Bender the decree appointing him professor of mathematics in Lund. There he continued until 1735, when he died.
NOTE 293.
KLINGENSTJERNA.
Samuel Klingenstjerna was one of Swedenborg's correspondents, whose letters have unfortunately been lost (see Document 312, no. 22, p. 883). He was one of the foremost mathematicians of Sweden, and it would have been interesting to know the relations which he occupied in respect to Swedenborg.
He was born in 1698, and his taste for mathematics was so pronounced, that after he had passed through the University of Upsal, the Diet of 1723 granted him means for undertaking a scientific journey through Europe, where he made the acquaintance of the leading mathematicians and philosophers. Meanwhile the respect which he enjoyed among the scientific men increased, so that in 1729, mainly on the recommendation of the philosopher Christopher von Wolf he was appointed professor mathematics in Upsal. That professorship he filled for twenty-four years to the great advantage and honour of the University. In 1755 he was appointed instructor of the Crown-Prince Gustavus III, which office he filled until 1764. He died in 1765.
NOTE 294.
SOPHIA BRENNER.
Sophia Brenner, whom Swedenborg in Document 39 (Vol. I, p. 208) called "the Sappho of our age," was born in 1659. Her biographer in the Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexicon says respecting her: "She was so quick at learning that by simply listening to her brothers' instruction she acquired a knowledge of the Latin language, and by some extra instruction which she afterwards received, she was enabled to write Latin verses. Still greater skill she displayed in the use of the German languages, which was the home language of her parents. In the Italian, French, and Dutch languages also she was so thoroughly at home that she was able to write verses also in the two former of these. Inspired by reading Kingo's Danish songs, and animated by her husband, Assessor Elias Brenner, whom she married when twenty-one, she published in 1709 a volume of poems (Poetiske Dikter), which for the most part consisted of poems to celebrate various events, such as weddings, &c. Her poetical attempts created quite a furore. Congratulations, even from abroad, poured in upon the authoress. Among these was also one from young Emanuel Swedberg, which he enclosed for her in a letter addressed to his brother-in-law Ericus Benzelius (see Document 39) and which was introduced into the second edition of her poems (see document 313, no. 3, p. 885). In the later part of her life she published another poetical work on the "Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Vr Herres och Frlsares Jesu Christi aldraheligaste Pinos Historia rimvis betraktad), 1727. After her death the second part of her poems appeared in 1732 consisting of a miscellaneous collection of poems written during the later period of her life. She died in 1730, having given birth to fifteen children."
Her biographer passes the following judgment on her poetical genius, "Sophia Brenner's verses are distinguished by great freedom and at the same time precision heaped upon her by her contemporaries, the reflections contained in them are of the soberest and most matter-of-fact kind, and the interest which they command belongs purely to the history of literature."
NOTE 295.
COUNT MAGNUS STENBOCK.
Count Magnus Stenbock, the hero of Swedenborg's Ode published in his Ludus Heliconius (Document 313, no. 5, p. 886), was born in 1664. After finishing his course at the University of Upsal, he went abroad and entered into the military service of Holland. In 1687 he joined the Swedish army and soon rose to the dignity of a colonel. At the head of his regiment of Dalecarlians he was present with Charles XII in the successful battles which he fought against the Saxons and Russians, until 1707, when he was appointed governor of Schonen. When, after the disastrous battle of Pultawa, the Danes made warlike demonstrations against Sweden, Stenbock did all he could in order to put the country into a proper state of defence, and amid all possible difficulties he succeeded in raising an army for the defence of Schonen. With an ill-drilled, and badly furnished army he took the offensive, and attacked the Danish army near Helsingborg in the middle of winter. He had 6000 horsemen, a part of whom were in wooden shoes, and 8000 infantry, who wore their usual peasants' garments and sheep-skins, and with this army he attacked the Danes who numbered 15,000 soldiers, and utterly defeated them, compelling them to retreat across the Sound. Rarely has a victory been hailed with greater outbursts of joy, than Stenbock's victory over the Danes at Helsingborg, on the 10th of February, 1710. Swedenborg was then still at Brunsbo, sharing the universal joy of the people. His joy sought an outlet in the
Latin Ode to which we have referred above; and we follow the example of Dr. Wilkinson by inserting here, "to adorn our pages," Francis Barham's spirited version of Swedenborg's poem:
"Lulled be the dissonance of war--the crash
Of blood--stained arms-and let us listen now
To sweetest songs of jubilee. From harp
And thrilling lyre, let melodies of joy
Ring to the stars, and every sphere of space
Glow with the inspiring soul of harmony.
Phbus applauds, and all the Muses swell
Our glory on their far-resounding chords.
Well may the youthful poet be abashed,
Who sings such mighty enterprise,--his theme
So great, so insignificant his strain!--
Let Europe boast of Sweden--in the North,
South, East, and West, victorious.-Round the Pole
The seven Triones dance exultingly,
While Jove the Thunderer sanctions his decree,
Never to let the hyperborean bear
Sink in the all-o'erwhelming ocean stream;
For when in the wave be bathes his giant limbs,
'Tis but to rise more proudly. Even now
The fertile Scandia wreathes her brow with flowers,
And Victory's trophies glitter over Sweden.
The God of battles smiles upon our race,
And the fierce Dane sues for our mercy:--Yea,
The troops insidious Cimbria sent against us,
Lie scattered by a warrior young in arms.
Though Swedish Chades, our hero King's afar
In Russian battles--his bright valour fills
Te heart of Stenbock-the victorious one;--
These names of Charles and Stenbock like a spell
Created armaments, and hurled pale fear
Among our foes.-Stenbock! thy red right hand
Hath smitten down the spoiler; and in thee,
Another Charles we honour,-and rejoice
To hail thee, hero of thy grateful country.
Bind the triumphal laurel round thy brow,
Such chaplet well becomes the invincible;
Ascend thy chariot--we will fling the palms
Before thee, while the peal of martial music
Echoes thy high celebrity around.
Hadst thou in olden times of fable lived,
I had invoked thee as a demigod.
Behold, how glitteringly in northern heaven
Thy star exults: the name of Magnus fits
Both it and thee, inseparably linked:
In thee, the genius of the North expands,
And all the virtue of thy ancestry
Illustrates thee. Chief of our gallant chiefs
Too gallant for a song so weak as mine--
Oh! could their names enshrined in monuments
Appear, how would the eyes of Sweden kindle
To read them. Coronets of gold for thee,
Were all too little recompense;--hereafter,
A crown of stars is all thine own. The foe
Lies broken by thy force and heroism:
Numerous as Denmark's sands they came--how few
Returned--their princes and their soldiery
Repulsed with scorn, while shuddering horror hung
Upon their flight--Jove's thunderstorms assailed
Their bands of treachery, daylight was eclipsed
In thickest clouds, and the pure cause of God
And patriotism triumphed. Aye, the cause
Of Sweden's royalty, which Denmark strove--
How vainly--to despoil. Our king perceived
Their rising hatred; poets were forbid
To sing his praise--his praise beyond compare:
For this, in sooth, the land was steeped in blood;
Even for this, the fire and sword laid waste
Our native soil. Then let each warrior bind
The laurel chaplet, and the bard exult
O'er slaughtered rebels. For the destiny
Of Charles shall yet awake the Muse's hymns.
Ah, soon return,--O monarch of our love!
O! Sun of Sweden, waste not all thy light
To illume the crescent of the Ottomans;
Thy absence we bewail, wandering in glooms
Of midnight sorrow--save that these bright stars
That lead us on to victory, still console
Thy people's hearts, and bid them not despair."
Stenbock's end was not in harmony with the glorious victory he gained over the Danes in 1710. He was, indeed, made a field-marshal, and appointed governor in chief of Schonen, Holland, and
Blekinge. But in 1712 he crossed over to the continent in order to meet the Danes again. He gained the victory of Gadebusch over them (see Document 207, p. 132), but had to capitulate to the Danes in Tnningen in 1713. He was now a prisoner of war, and was at first treated in Copenhagen with all distinction, but at last was thrown into a dungeon, where he died a miserable death in 1717.
NOTE 296.
JACOB A. MELLE
Jacob Melle, Swedenborg's correspondent on the subject of the fluctuations of the primeval sea (see Document 313, no. 27, p. 900), was born in Lbeck in 1659. Being the son of a wealthy merchant he was educated under the superintendence of his godfather, pastor Krechtling. He commenced his studies in the university of Kiel, and finished them in 1676 at Jena, where he passed four years at the house of G. Sagittarius. After visiting the Netherlands, England, and France he returned home in 1684, when he was appointed assistant minister of the church of St. Mary in his native town. In 1706 he was made pastor in chief, and continued in this office until the time of his death. He published many works which treat mainly on numismatics, and the history of Lbeck. From 1698-1700 he edited the Nova literaria maris Balthici (Literary news of the Baltic Sea), in which appeared many of his papers and dissertations. He died in 1743.
NOTE 297.
COUNT WELLINGK.
Count Maurice Wellingk, who was when Swedenborg dedicated to him the poem described in Document 313, no. 34 (p. 905) in the zenith of his power. He was then minister plenipotentiary at the congress of Brunswick (see Anrep. IV, p. 577), and there Swedenborg must have met him; for his power is dated Brunswick, April 2. While in Germany Wellingk intrigued at the court of Prussia in favour of the enlargement of the Swedish Royal power, by negotiating there for a private loan to be made to the King of Sweden. A few years later he opposed the King and Arvid Horn in the choice of a successor to the Swedish throne, when King Frederic, in order to rid himself of Wellingk, communicated the papers concerning the secret loan to the Swedish Diet. This resulted in the condemnation of Wellingk; his coat-of-arms was removed from the House of Lords (Riddarhuset), he was deprived of all his dignities and posts of honour, and condemned to imprisonment for life in the castle of Linköping. On the journey thither he became ill and died, in 1727.
NOTE 298.
LANDGRAVE WILLIAM OF HESSE-CASSEL.
William, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, to whom Swedenborg dedicated Volume II of his Opera Philosophica et Mineralia (see Document 313, no. 45, p. 910), was a younger brother of King Frederic of Sweden. After the death of his father in 1730 the King of Sweden assumed the throne of Hesse-Cassel, under the title of Frederic I, and appointed his brother William his vice-gerent. When Frederic died in 1751 without issue, his brother William was his successor as Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, under the title of William VIII. During the Seven years' war William was the ally of Great Britain, and fought with Frederic the Great against France and Austria. His soldiers obtained much glory in that war, but the country was more and more impoverished. William died in 1760.
NOTE 299.
J. BJRNSTJERNA.
Johan Bjrnstjerna, who at the instance of the Philanthropic Exegetic Society in 1787 compiled the first complete catalogue of the Swedenborg MSS. (see Document 397, p. 794), was a literary gentleman, well known by several bibliographical compilations. He also compiled the first complete catalogue of the printed works of Swedenborg. Both this catalogue and that of the Swedenborg MSS. were originally in the library of Lars von Engeström,256 and are now preserved in the Royal Library of Stockholm. In the latter catalogue Bjrnstjerna attributes to Swedenborg the work entitled: Dilucidationes de Origine Anim, &c. which is discussed in Document 313. He also mentions him as the author of a work entitled: Apologia principii resolutionis virium, contra Sam. Clark apud Anglosi which appeared in Stockholm, in 1765, as an octavo Volume. As his authority for this statement he says, "In a manuscript of 3 vols. 4to, entitled Bibliotheca illustris, written by Justice (Lagman) Apelblad Swedenborg is mentioned as author of this apology." It is needless for us to state here that Apelblad's statement has not been verified, and that the above work was not written by Swedenborg.
NOTE 300.
JONAS APELBLAD.
Jonas Apelblad seems to be the chief authority for the statement that Swedenborg in 1740 published a work entitled Dilucidationes de Origine Anim, &c., which is discussed in Document 313, no. 56, C, p. 924. He ascribed also to Swedenborg the authorship of a work entitled Apologia principii, &c. described above in Note 299. These statements are contained in a MS. work, which is described in the Biografiskt Lexicon thus, "In manuscript he has left Suecia Literata illustris, together with a list of anonymous authors which is more complete than that of Stjernman. Both are preserved in the Library of the University of Upsal.
Jonas Apelblad was born in 1717. He distinguished himself at the University of Upsal, and in 1750 was appointed lecturer on the Oriental languages. During 1755 and 1756 he undertook a journey to Germany in company with Count Carl Johan Gyllenborg, a description of which he published in two volumes in 1757 and 1759. Volume I was also translated into German. On his return he was appointed "Adjunkt" or professor extraordinary of the Greek and Hebrew languages at Upsal; and in 1762 he was chosen instructor of prince Charles (Charles XIII). He died in 1786.
NOTE 301.
SEBASTIAN SCHMIDT.
Concerning Sebastian Schmidt, the author of that translation of the Sacred Scripture which Swedenborg constantly used, and which he annotated (see Document 310, Codices 89 and 90, p. 873, and Document 313. no. 92, p. 970), we collect from Jcher's Allgemeines Gelehrten Lexicon, published in the beginning of the last century, the following particulars:
"Sebastian Schmidt, a Lutheran theologian, was born on January 6, 1617, at Lampertsheim, a village in Alsace, of poor but honest parents. He studied at first in Marburg, Wittenberg, Knigsberg, and Ble, paying particular attention to the classical and oriental languages; he likewise examined the rabbinical and Talmudic writings and at the same time accustomed himself to translating. Afterwards he came to Strasburg, where D. Dorschus received him into his house, and bearded him.
Soon after he became pastor in Ensheim, and afterwards principal of the gymnasium at Lindau, and finally he was appointed professor of theology in the University of Strasburg, in the place of Dorscheus. The dignities to which he was successively advanced were those of doctor of theology, canon, senior professor of the university, president of the ecclesiastical convention (Conventus Ecclesiastici prses), and dean of the chapter of Thomas
(Capituli Thomani prpositus). He now began to make a most thorough study of the Bible, furnished it with comments and learned observations from beginning to end, translated it anew into Latin; and in addition published many useful writings in German and Latin."
Schmidt's biographer gives here the titles of upwards of sixty different works from his pen. Among these we select the following: De necessitate bonorum operum (the necessity of good works); Lutherische Frmmigkeit oder Tractat von guten Werken, und dass aus der lutherischen Lehre ein frommes Leben folge (Lutheran piety, or a tract on good works, wherein it is shown that from the Lutheran doctrine a pious life results); Rechte Kinderzucht (The proper training of children); De imagine Dei in homine ante lapsum ex Gen. i, 27 (The image of God in man before the fall, from Genesis i, 27); Collatio Scriptur Sacr et Pontificis Romani A Comparison of the Sacred Scripture with the Pope of Rome); Dissertations theologico-philosophic (Dissertations of a theologico-philosophical import); De Deo et ejus attributis (God and His attributes); De Theologia naturali (Natural Theology); De peccato et libero arbitrio, ex Joh. viii, 36 (On sin and man's freedom of choice, according to John viii, 36); De phrasi Scriptur, qua Deus dicitur indurare, exccare, seducere" (Concerning the mode of expression in Scripture, according to which God is said to become hardened, to strike with blindness, to seduce); De angelis malis ex Joh. viii, 44 (The wicked angels, according to John viii, 44); De pnitentia impii ex Ezech. xxxiii, (The repentance of the wicked); De chiliasmo apocalyptico (The millenium is the Revelation); De conjugio mystico (The mystical marriage); De desponsatione fidelium cum Christo (The marriage of the Faithful to Christ); De statu beatroum in vita terna (The state of the blessed in the eternal life).
"By these and other similar works Sebastian Schmidt became so celebrated, that he received many calls to other universities. The King of Sweden invited him by an autograph letter to go to the University at Dorpat. Yet he remained is Strasburg to the end of his life. He died January 9, 1696, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, having filled his office for fifty-three years."
In 1785 Bishop Swedberg, Swedenborg's father, formed "An invaluable intimacy with the learned and pious theologian S. Smidius" (see Document 10, Vol. I, p. 101), and it was no doubt by his father that Swedenborg's attention wits first directed to Schmidt's translation of the Bible.
Schmidt's translation of the Bible was published in 1696, and while the work was being seen through the press, he died. In the preface to the second edition, which was published in 1708, the Theological Faculty of the University of Strasburg give the following account of the work and of its author:
"The author of this work is most celebrated throughout the whole of God's Church. For he is the most venerable, the most worthy, and the most excellent Sebastian Schmidt, doctor of theology, and formerly professor of it in this our beloved University of Strasburg, and in this capacity throughout the whole of his life crowned with honour and respect; who was the worthy Dean of the chapter of Thomas, and the venerable president of the Ecclesiastical Convention, and for many years the senior professor of the theological faculty, and its wise and faithful director; and who has now by a blessed departure been snatched from the straits of this life, and carried to the blessed and eternal mansions of the heavenly father; whose memory will remain a blessing to all, and especially to us, to whom during his lifetime he was either a faithful colleague or preceptor, and who have held him ever in veneration.
"We may be allowed here to apply to him some words of Augustine. Is it a curious or a difficult question which is placed before us? Was it possible for so great a doctor, who spent his whole life in reflecting and meditating on the Sacred Scripture, and who died, while engaged in these meditations, to leave to the Church of God a version of the Scriptures which would be an ornament and benefit to it? Or was it his duty to leave to the church such a version? Even if we should keep silence, the version itself would speak for itself and for its author.
"Augustine said, 'We must have recourse to the Hebrew and Greek originals'; he said also 'a knowledge of both these languages is necessary.' But what was there in the hidden recesses of the Hebrew language of the Old, and of the Greek of the New, which our translator has not explored? Or what was there that his perspicacity has not discovered, his profound meditation not brought to light?
"Again Augustine said that 'he seemed to himself to possess some knowledge of both these languages,' &c. Schmidt, however, possessed not only a little of this knowledge, but, oh how much!
In his own eyes, indeed, he did not, but in the eyes of all others he did. Asked, impelled, and entreated by them, he could not help expending the talent entrusted to him for the good of the Church.
"Augustine again said, that 'he risked and ventured to translate.' With Schmidt there was no risk and no venture, but with him there was confidence. He had the ability to do the work. 'Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask, the more,' Luke xii, 48. This work could be demanded of him, because the Lord had fitted him out with the necessary ability. While engaged in this work, the fear of the Lord was constantly before his eyes."
In another place the Theological Faculty of Strasburg says, "If any one but considers who the translator was, he will be almost compelled to esteem his translation. His profound knowledge of the languages, which was indispensable for his work, has been adverted to above. How accurately did he examine, and with what a precise judgment did he decide the meaning and also the force of each word, each expression, and of the whole context! The public disputations which he held, the tracts he wrote, and the commentaries which he edited are a proof of this. The version of Scripture which he there exhibited is terse and plain, and the real meaning of the text is there exposed to our gaze. From the specimens which he published, we are justified in concluding as to the character of the entire codex of the Bible. The talents and gifts with which Jesus Christ fits out his ministers for the use of the Church are many and various; our translator, however, excelled in the gift of translation and interpretation. Still, in acknowledging the gifts which the Lord bestowed on his servant, we acknowledge and celebrate the Lord who gave them. To this natural gift was added in his case an indefatigable perseverance. His whole life was devoted to meditation. Almost entirely sequestered from the delights and the intercourse of the world, he gave himself up to sacred meditation. Add to this, benevolent reader, the age of the man. This translation is the work of a man far advanced in age; for he was just approaching his eightieth year. Let us therefore venerate the judgment of a venerable man, which had been exercised during many years, and which had become refined and clarified by such exercise. An old wine is presented to us here, and not a racy new wine. But had the failing of old age a share in this work? Not at all. This translation has been meditated upon for forty years. So long was he perfecting and polishing it; and at last he published it, and yielded up his spirit over this his last offspring: for he died as it appeared.
Let us acknowledge the Divine Providence, and the wonderful leadings of the Divine Providence. God Himself, in that wisdom with which He directs all minds, had decreed that Schmidt should die while engaged in this work. His was a life of labour and toil, but the Lord did not free him from it. This last work was reserved for him. And when it was ended and completed, the Lord said, Now it is enough, now enter into rest from thy labours, and into the joy of thy Lord. While pondering over this, a kind of holy fear and reverence of the supreme Leader and of His guidance comes over us, and impresses us with the idea, that all cause of envy was here removed. The very expression 'envy' has a melancholy sound. Yet here there is no room for envy. Our translator had no respect for his own glory; his object was to adorn his office and to trade with his talent. He eschewed the world, were empty show, and all glory. Mutual charity, a pure and undefiled mind, according to the judgment of all, he sought to attain.
"It may be observed that in some places he has introduced some peculiar explanations and translations. We reply, every translator who appears before the public has his peculiarities, especially if he is endowed with discrimination. It is different, however, for a man to be governed by the desire to be diverse and distinct from others, and again for him in all freedom to give his opinion, leaving the reader in fall freedom to receive or to reject what he has to offer. We recollect, that often in public disputations the departed in making a reply said, that he simply stated his own opinion, and that he accorded to every one the freedom of judging and of forming his opinion for himself. Just critics, however, will acknowledge that when he differs in his opinion from others, he has always an abundant reason for doing so.
"Schmidt's object was to produce a translation from the Hebrew and Greek, which might be of use to those who are more learned in consulting the original text, and which at the same time would be expressed in simpler, plainer, and clearer language. In conclusion it may be stated that he wrote annotations for Genesis, which are now being printed. There he gives an account of the principles which he followed in the translation of Genesis. He might have annotated the other books of Scripture in a similar manner. But God, the supreme arbiter of life, has decreed otherwise, and was pleased to put an end to his labours."
NOTE 302.
JOHAN TYBECK.
In all countries in which the writings of Swedenborg have been made known, the receivers of his doctrines have been divided into two classes: first, those who by means of these doctrines sought to reform the Old Church, and who for this purpose considered it their duty to remain within the fold of the Old Church; and secondly, those who believe that the new cannot be mixed with the old, nor instilled into the old, and who maintain that a new doctrine implies a New Church not only in internals, but also in externals.
These two classes of New Churchmen have also been represented in Sweden, and among these Johan Tybeck proclaimed himself openly and unequivocally a member of the second class. For a notice of his life we are indebted to the author of the Nya Kyrkan och dess infytande, who in respect to the necessity of a separation of the new from the old did not share Tybeck's views, but who otherwise sympathized with him, and gave an impartial and interesting view of his life and character:
"John Tybeck was born on January 26, 1751, in Nerike. Like the well-known Jung-Stilling (Note 215), he commenced his career as a mechanic. A portion of his youthful years he spent in acquiring the trade of a saddler, and he was about becoming a journeyman when he exchanged the workshop for the grammar and dictionary. He, consequently, commenced his studies in late years, but this progress was so much quicker; for according to the Biografiskt Lexicon 'he was the cleverest among a hundred and forty pupils at the gymnasium.' When he was twenty-six years of age he entered the University of Upsal, and two years afterwards he was ordained into the ministry. He first became chaplain on the estate of Baron J. D. Duvall, the general adjutant, and afterwards on that of the Baroness B. G. Sparre, and finally from 1781 to 1797 he was chaplain to Baron J. Liljencrantz, the governor, in Hesselbyholm in Sdermanland. From 1801 to 1803 he also acted as assistant minister in Helgar." This is the extent of his active life in the ministry; for after 1803 he lived on a, small estate called n which was granted to him for life by Baron Liljencrantz, and which was situated on the island of Fogdn in Lake Mlar, in the neighbourhood of Hesselbyholm.
"A short time after he had entered upon his ministerial duties," says the author of Nya Kyrkan, &c., "A girl called Sara Stina Schultz was entrusted to his pastoral care and to that of a colleague whose name was kner.
She was looked upon by her own relatives and the people generally as possessed by evil spirits. She was under the care of a most careful physician, but his treatment proved of no avail. When pharmaceutical and dietetic remedies proved useless recourse was had to Biblical remedies, which were more effective. By prayers and applying the words of Scripture and calling upon the name of the Saviour, Tybeck and kner succeeded after the manner of the apostles in soothing and quieting the convulsions and paroxysms of the girl, so that among the people generally they were looked upon as workers of miracles. Tybeck was summoned before the Consistory of Strengns and severely reprimanded for daring to ascribe these epileptic attacks to the agency of evil spirits and for exorcising them by the application of God's Word. Tybeck insisted that the girl's illness was due to the agency of evil spirits, and, at last, submitted to the Consistory a document, in which he gave a full description of the case. This document was entered upon the Minutes of the Consistory in 1782.
In a letter which Tybeck wrote to C. F. Nordenskjöld towards the close of 1782, and which is in the possession of the Editor of these Documents, he refers to the preceding narrative and says,
"While all this was taking place, the Lord was pleased to direct my attention to the precious writings of Assessor Swedenborg, which I at once received and approved. I am inclined to think that both on account of the affair with Sara Schultz and my faith in the writings of Swedenborg I shall have additional difficulties with the Consistory. In respect to the latter, I am still in doubt whether I ought to make an open confession of my thoughts and convictions in respect to these writings, or whether it is better for me to keep back, and remain quiet in the matter. So long as the freedom of the press was suppressed in Sweden, from 1790 to 1809, Tybeck, together with the other friends of the truth, was compelled to keep silence. But after this pressure had been removed in 1809, they began to breathe more freely, and Tybeck in 1817 printed a tract on the text: 'God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.' This tract was written in the spirit of the New Church, and was severely criticized in the Stockholm's Post. Tybeck printed a reply containing additional information on the subject. A law-suit was the result; for he was accused of seeking to spread doctrines inimical to by the Court of Appeals in Stockholm. The jury, however, pronounced in his favour, and the finding of the jury was confirmed by the Court of Appeals in Stockholm.
The matter was now brought before the Consistory of Strengns, and Tybeck was summoned before them to defend himself against the charge of heterodoxy.
Eighty questions were put down by the consistory, which he had to answer, "During the wearisome cross examination before the Consistory," says the author of Nya Kyrkan, &c., "Tybeck reminded one of Socrates before the Areopagus. He neither treated with his judges, nor did he make any compromise with their religious views. The contest which he had provoked, he stood ready to face openly and fearlessly, even after the gauntlet had been taken up by the bishop of the diocese." We shall extract a few specimens from the printed cross-examination:
"When Bishop Tingstadius among other things asked Tybeck whether 'he was really convinced that the Evangelical Lutheran doctrine was without foundation,' he answered, 'Most assuredly am I convinced of this. And I say so with the firm and full conviction that as a minister it is my duty to preach, believe, and confess only what the Word of God teaches.' When he was asked again whether 'he rejected the symbolical writings,' he answered, 'Most undoubtedly do I reject them. For it is the first principle of the Lutheran doctrine that we must acknowledge God's Word as the only standard of truth on all matters of doctrine; wherefore God's Word alone must be accepted."
The result was that on April 15, 1818, the Consistory condemned Tybeck as heterodox, and suspended him from the priestly office. This sentence was confirmed by the King, and on August 31 of the same year he was stripped of the insignia of his office.
This procedure was condemned by the press as hierarchical and unprotestant. And not knowing how to defend themselves in public against this charge, the Consistory ransacked their Minutes for 1782, and printed the report which Tybeck had then made of the case of Sara Stina Schultz, thinking that by this means they would cast odium upon him is the eyes of the public. Tybeck in a reply entitled: 'Interesting reading for those who believe in a life after this,' exposed the whole proceeding of the Consistory, and, certainly in the eyes of the public, not he but the members of the consistory were considered as the condemned party. The author of Nya Kyrkan, &c., continues:
"If Tybeck's adversaries supposed that by depriving him of the priestly office, they obstructed his literary activity, they were very much mistaken. The words which Cornelius Nepos applied to Themistocles when he was deprived of his paternal inheritance: hc contemelia eum non fregit, sed erexit (this degradation did not crush, but aroused him)--have their full application to Tybeck. He now fairly poured out writings in which he explained the doctrines of the New Church, and at the same time kept up an unceasing attack upon the Lutheran dogmas.
These writings display a profound veneration for the religious teachings of Scripture, a clear insight into the mysteries of Christianity, and they are characterized by the same solidity in a theoretical and practical respect, as the writings of Swedenborg himself, from which they were drawn. His language is generally pure, and sometimes even brilliant, his mode of presenting the truths of the New Church simple and unaffected, and accommodated to the understanding of the people, and, besides, his teaching was thoroughly sound and reliable. Several of his smaller writings fulfilled in Sweden the use which in England is performed by the so-called 'tracts;' and the attention of many people was thereby directed to the New Church."
When Tybeck was suspended from his priestly function he was in his sixty-sixth year. After that time from 1818 to 1831 he published no less than twenty-five of these writings; a full list of which is contained in the Nya Kyrkan, &c., III, pp. 138 and 139.
Tybeck spent the latter part of his life on his island in Lake Mlar; and by the assistance of friends both in England and Sweden he was not without the comforts of life. Among the friends who stood up for him in Sweden, and furnished him with the means for publishing his writings were especially C. I. Schnherr, the councillor of commerce, and Major L. Gyllenhaal (for further particulars, see Note 302).
He died in his eighty-sixth year, on January 28, 1837.
It was Tybeck who furnished to Dr. Kahl in 1818 the account of Swedenborg's love for Polhem's daughter (see Document 5, no. 54, Vol. I, p. 50), and the truth of this account Tybeck said he was able fully to affirm (see Dr. Im. Tafel's Sammlung von Urkunden, &c. IV. p. 74).
Tybeck's name is also mentioned in Document 310, Codex 48, p. 851.
NOTE 303.
MAJOR GYLLENHAAL.
Major Leonard Gyllenhaal, the friend of John Tybeck (Note 302), was a member of the society Pro Fide et Charitate, which succeeded the Exegetic Philanthropic Society. He had a valuable collection of documents concerning Swedenborg and copies of some of his MSS., which after his death in 1852 came into the hands of Dr. A. Kahl. Among these is an important copy of the work entitled "Canons," concerning which see Document 313, no. 143 (p. 1012); further, the original copy from which has been translated Document 254, (p. 424).
Among these papers also were copies of the Latin originals of Document 228, and of Documents 246-248. These copies Dr. A. Kahl kindly presented to the Editor of these Documents during his stay in Sweden. Concerning Major Gyllenhaal, who was born in 1752 and died in 1842 in his ninetieth year, Dr. A. Kahl in his Nya Kyrkan, &c. (IV, p. 22) furnishes the following account: "Leonard Gyllenhaal was universally known and respected throughout the whole of Sweden for his indefatigable activity in the promotion of the cause of science and manufacture, for his lofty, unprejudiced, and patriotic sentiments, and for his exemplary Christian life and character. As the greatest Swedish entomologist of his time, he enjoyed also a European celebrity, and corresponded with many scientific men abroad. The great esteem in which he was held by the scientific world, added weight and importance in the eyes of the public to the religious ideas which he represented, and for which he lived. Whilst yet young he was introduced into a knowledge of the Wahlfedt of Skara. After he had arrived at the age of manhood he translated, copied, and gave away many of Swedenborg's theological works, and, during the suppression of the freedom of the press in Sweden from 1790 to 1810, he laboured in this wise for the spread of the doctrines of the New Church. Even in advanced age his countenance brightened up, whenever he met with any one who shared his religious convictions, and was willing to work for them. He himself had drawn deeply from the fountain of truth in the New Church, and in conjunction with his friend Schnherr, he assisted and supported every literary undertaking for the advancement of the New Church. In the help and friendship of these two men Tybeck (Note 302) found his greatest earthly support. They collected the funds for his support, which amounted annually to about 500 or 600 crowns. They also furnished the means for printing and spreading his writings during his life-time, and they afterwards took charge of the correspondence and MSS. which he left behind, and which is still carefully preserved. Gyllenhaal and Schnherr Society pro Fide et Charitate. Schnherr also had many of Swedenborg's smaller writings copied, and he presented these copies to those who ere not able to procure them for themselves.
Gyllenhaal was a member of many scientific societies abroad, of the Societ Entomologique of Paris, the Entomological Society of London, and of many others. His work entitled Insecta Suecica appeared in 4 vols. from 1808-1827.
His valuable entomological collection he presented in his life-time to the University of Upsal.
NOTE 304.
COUNT VON CASTELL.
Count Ludwig Friedrich von Castell, to whom Prelate tinger addressed a number of letters contained in Document 314, E (pp. 1052 et seq.), lived at Rehweiler, Franconia, in the Kingdom of Bavaria. He was chamberlain of the King of Denmark. His sister was married to Count Reuss of Ebersdorf, whose sister was Zinzendorf's first wife. tinger therefore made von Castell's acquaintance through Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravian Church.
The extracts from tinger's letter to Count von Castell, were communicated to tinger's biographer by the Rev. J. A. Osiander.
NOTE 305.
PROFESSOR SEMLER.
In respect to Dr. John Salomon Semler, tinger, in Document 314, p. 1057, says, "Perhaps I shall yet become Swedenborg's greatest adversary; for he is just like Semler, only in a different sense; he renders weak and volatile the full sense of the Sacred Scripture." Semler, who is described by the German Conversationslexicon as one of the most influential protestant theologians of the eighteenth century was born in 1725 at Saalfeld, when the influence of the pietists was in the ascendant. In the University of Halle he overcame his early religious sentiments and joined the liberal theological party under Baumgarten. In 1751 he received the call to the theological professorship at Halle which he filled until his death in 1791. In this capacity he published many exegetical and hermeneutical works, and was a champion of tolerance and freedom in the church. In 1788, however, he was faithless to this principle, and supported an edict issued by the minister of state, Wllner, according to which any deviation from the doctrines accepted by the church exposed the subjects of the Prussian monarchy to a criminal prosecution. About that time he also made an attack on Swedenborg's and Lavater's writings under the following title: Dr. Joh. Sal Semler's Unterhaltungen mit Herrn Lavator ber die freie praktische Religion; auch ber die Revision der bisherigen Theologie (Conversations with Mr. Lavater on the subject of a free, practical religion, and also on the "Brief Exposition of the Doctrines of the New Church"), 1787.
On this subject we read in the "New Jerusalem Journal" for 1792, "'The Brief Exposition' has also of late met with a German translator, somewhere in Saxony; the consequence of which has been a violent attack upon it by a famous professor of divinity at Halle, Jo. Sal Semler"-then follows the title of the work.
NOTE 306.
FRICKER
In his letter to Swedenborg (Document 314, B, p. 1031) tinger says, "One thing I must beg of you that you will see my friend Fricker, late assistant minister of the church in Dettingen, who also embraced your principles; that you would converse with him, and report to me the substance of your conversation." In a letter to Hartmann, dated December 24, 1771, he says, I" received curious accounts fro Swedenborg. He has conversed with Fricker; he is well off. Fricker it seems opposed him. Swedenborg says that Fricker is constantly with me, that he inserts himself into my ideas."
Concerning Fricker tinger, according to Ehmann's Biography (p. 246), says, "Count von Castell called upon me, and asked me to select for him a student, well trained in mathematics, and strong in astronomy. I wrote fro Magister Fricker of Tübingen. Afterwards he was private tutor in the house of Cornelius von der Flint. At last he returned to Würtemberg, and was appointed minister in Dettingen, near Urach. He died young. He surpassed me, his teacher, by far; especially in mathematics and physics. He discovered his new theory of music; but it is so profound that few are able to acquire it. His theory is propounded in my book entitled, Sensus communis, and also in several other books of mine" [e. g. in Volume II of his "Earthly and Heavenly Philosophy," &c.]
NOTE 307.
DR. A. KAHL.
Dr. Achatius Kahl, whose name is often referred to in the preceding pages, was born on October 17, 1794, on the island of Hven where his father Moritz Kahl was dean (prosti) and pastor.
His mother's name was Helena Katrina Sjberg. In his twelfth year he entered as a student the University of Lund, and in 1814 in his twentieth year obtained there the degree of doctor of philosophy. In the following year he was appointed lecturer on classical literature, and in 1821 professor of the oriental languages in the same University. In 1825 he took holy orders, and in 1827 was nominated first assistant minister in Lund, and pastor of Rby and Bjellerup. In 1830 he was elected Dean of Lund. In 1844 he was created doctor of divinity; and in addition knight of the polar star in 1852. In 1865 he celebrated the fiftieth year of his receiving the degree of doctor of philosophy, at which time he was received as honorary member by many learned bodies both in Sweden and abroad.
Of his many writings the following are distinctly mentioned in the Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexicon. (The Swedish Biographical Dictionary): (1) Tegnr och hans samtida i Lund (Tegnr and his contemporaries in Lund), 1851, second edition,' 1868; (2) Brderna i Ohio, eller nyprotestantiska kyrkan i Nordamerikanska fristaterna. (The brethren in Ohio, or the New Protestant Church in the North American Republic), 1853; (3) Nya kyrkan och dess inflytande p theologiens studium i Sverige (The New Church and its influence on the study of theology in Sweden), 4 nos., 1849-1864; (4) Ngra minnen frn den Tegnrska tiden. (Some remembrances from Tegnr's times), 1853; (5) Latinska classicitetens forfall (Loss of ability in the use of the Latin tongue), 1854; (6) Eman. Swedenborgii Diarii Spiritualis Partis VII Sectio 3, continens narratiunculas de vitis hominum in Diario E. Swedenborgii commemoratoru, &c. (Short biographies of the men mentioned in Swedenborg's Diary, &c.), 1859; (7) Frord till skriften: De Symboliska bckerna i frhllande till den Heliga Skrift (Preface to the work entitled, The Symbolical writings and their relation to the Sacred Scripture), 1862; (8) Frord till C. A. Agardhs Samlade skrifter af blandadt innehll (Preface to C. A. Agardhs' Collected writings on various subjects), 1863. To these works must also be added: (9) Emanuelis Swedenborgii Index Biblicus sive Thesaurus Bibliorum emblematicus et allegoricus, Volumen IV edidit A. Kahl (Swedenborg's Index Biblicus, &c. Vol. IV, edited by A. Kahl), 1868, and (10) Em. Swedenborgiii Itinerarium, Sectio Secunda, continens partem Suecice scriptam et nunc in Latinum translatam ab A. K[ahl] (Swedenborg's Journal of travel, Section II, containing the part written in Swedish now translated into Latin by A. Kahl), 1844.
To this must be added articles on subjects of theology, philology, and ecclesiastical history, which Dr. Kahl contributed to Journais in Sweden and abroad.
"Among these works" says the Swedish biographer, "especially that mentioned as no. 1, occupies a prominent place, on account of the elegance of its style, and the life-like description of the characters which are introduced in it."
Of works, those marked as nos. 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, and 10 are devoted to the interests of the New Church; but many works by other writers, Dr, Kahl examined and saw through the press, and likewise contributed towards their publication from his private purse. Many documents contained in the preceding volumes were discovered by him; indeed he was the main source of new documents concerning Swedenborg for Dr. Im. Tafel, and he has also assisted the editor of the present Documents, both by advice and the contribution of the original" of some documents that had previously been published. The most important contributions, however, towards a biography of Swedenborg, and a history of the New Church are contained in no. 3, or in his work entitled: "The Influence of the New Church," &c. On this work we have largely drawn in the elaboration of Section VII of the present work, and also of Document 225, which treats of the "Controversy with the Consistory of Gottenburg." To Dr. Kahl also is due the preservation of Document 244, and No. 6 in Document 291. He has likewise studied the subject of Swedenborg's relation to Freemasonry discussed in Document 293. To him also is due the information which we were able to give concerning Dr. Beyer in Note 22.
In many respects Dr. Kahl has performed the same uses for the New Church in Sweden, which Dr Im. Tafel has performed for Germany; and the church at large has been benefited greatly by his labours.
NOTE 308.
MR. WILLIAM WHITE.
Mr. White has published several biographies of Swedenborg: (1) "Swedenborg: his Life and Writings," 1856 pp. 156, foolscap 8vo; (2) "Emanuel Swedenborg: his Life and Writings, 2 Vols., 8vo., 1867, Vol. I, pp. 604; Vol. II, pp. 674; (3) Emanuel Swedenborg: his Life and Writings," 1868, one volume, pp. 767. By these biographies, which have been widely circulated, especially those mentioned under nos. 2 and 3, Mr. White has the reputation of being a great authority on all matters connected with Swedenborg and his writings.
In order, however, to regard Mr. White in his proper light as a biographer of Swedenborg, it is necessary to consider not only the biographies which he published in 1867 and 1568, but also the shorter biography which he published in 1856, end which has since been stereotyped in America, and translated into the Swedish language. Mr. White's reviewers, since 1867, have not considered it necessary to compare his later works with his earlier publication. We shall supply this deficiency, and in addition draw for some biographical notices respecting Mr. White upon a small volume which he published in 1876 under the title, "Other-world Order."
We learn there that Mr. White is of Scotch parentage, and that "his parents were members of the Society of Friends in Glasgow," and that "he was taken by them to meeting on Sundays with unfailing regularity." "At school," he says, "I was exempted from the Presbyterian Catechism, on the score of Quakerism; but my ears were open to its repetition, and the spirit of Scottish theology was breathed into me. Sin and righteousness, death and judgment, God and Satan, angels and devils, mere continually in my thoughts." In another place he says, "It is difficult to be a Scot and escape anxiety about eternity, and the question, What shall I do to be saved? Heaven and Hell are among the earliest conceptions of Scottish childhood, especially Hell."
"As I advanced in boyhood," he continues, "I was sent to a Quaker school in Cumberland, where I tried to qualify for Heaven by doing my duties faithfully; but never felt that I had requisite righteousness. The master by whose spirit I was moved to these endeavours left the school, and was succeeded by what is known as an Evangelical. From his lips I first apprehended the curious doctrine of salvation by faith ....
"Returning to Scotland, I read George Combe's Constitution of Man, and it was to me as the opening of a new world. Surely never were book and reader, teacher and scholar, so perfectly matched. I was distressed for a day or two with what I considered the identification of brain and mind. It seemed to me that if Combe was right, the death of the one must be the death of the other. Suddenly I found relief in the conception of the existence of an imponderable spiritual body within the material body, of which the material body with all its organs was the expression and counterpart. Subsequently I had the conception verified and extended by Swedenborg.
"I got acquainted with Unitarians, who disbelieved in the eternity of Hell, and maintained that the whole human race would ultimately be saved. It was a comfortable opinion, and one I should have been glad to share; but I never could see that it had any credible basis.....
"Afflicted by Calvinism, yet refusing relief by mere good nature, I found an anodyne in Swedenborgianism. I chanced to pick up a copy of The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine on a secondhand bookstall, and, putting it in my desk, read it at odd moments. Its statements, doctrinal and supernatural, interested me much that I procured Heaven and Hell, and began to frequent the New Jerusalem Temple, as the Swedenborgian meeting-house called. I was introduced to the preacher, Oliver Prescott Hiller, an American, and in his ministry, and in acquaintance with the congregation, I felt translated to a happier world. In Swedenborgianism I did not get rid of the notion of eternal damnation, but was taught to refer the existence of hell entirely to human perversity. God desired to take all to Heaven, but all would not go."
So far Mr. White permits us to have insight into his personal history. For the present we shall add to this account simply, that in course of time Mr. White, while still a young man, came to London, where he was for a number of years agent of the Swedenborg Society; and while in that capacity he published from 1855-1857 a periodical entitled "The Newchurchman," in which he inserted an English translation of twenty-six of Swedenborg's letters to Ericus Benzelius; Document 64, Vol. I, p. 229. In 1856, also, he reprinted from the "Phonetic Journal" his first "Life of Swedenborg" which had appeared in that journal during 1854 and 1855.
As a biographer of Swedenborg Mr. White occupies the position of a literary Vertumnus, and as such his place in literature seems to be without a parallel. For never before in the annals of literature has the example been witnessed of a writer, within the short period of ten years, turning a complete summersault in his convictions, not on doctrinal subjects--for this would be excusable--but on the literary and personal character of a man dead for nearly a century, all whose writings, and all the important particulars of whose life were as fully known to the writer in the one case, as in the other.
Our endeavour in this Note will be to exhibit the contradictory and antagonistic position which Mr. White in 1856 occupies in respect to Mr. White in 1867 on the subject of Swedenborg; and after showing some additional contradictions which are contained in Mr. White's "Life of Swedenborg" of 1867, to examine in detail the charge which he brings against Swedenborg's moral character in discussing his treatise on "Conjugial Love." Afterwards we shall discuss the equivocal position which he occupies on the question of Swedenborg's alleged insanity; and after explaining some errors which Mr. White imputes to Swedenborg, we shall the mistranslations, point out, unfounded assertions, and inaccuracies contained in Mr. White's "Life of Swedenborg" of 1867;
and, finally, we shall furnish some historical facts which throw light on the contradictory and hostile attitude which Mr. White has occupied since their occurrence in respect to Swedenborg.
I.
CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN MR. WHITE IN 1856 AND MR. WHITE IN 1867.
Mr. White in 1856.
(a) ON BISHOP SWEDBERG.
"The character of Bishop Swedberg stood high in Sweden. Simple, patriotic, and honest,--he was, without being brilliant, a learned and industrious man" (p. 2).
Mr. White in 1867.
"The Bishop was a man spiritual and worldly, liberal and intolerant, generous and grasping, lively and serious, and in all things restless and aggressive..... His frankness was not sincerity so much as ignorance of the effect of his words. Dulness of this sort is a qualification for a certain order of worldly success" (I, pp. 112, 113).
(b) ON SWEDENBORG'S CHARACTER
Mr. White in 1856.
"Swedenborg dedicated his first literary production to his father, in a prelude full of veneration and love. Its length alone prevents our gratifying the reader with the perusal of this beautiful tribute of filial affection. Among many virtues, it should not be accounted the least, that Swedenborg was a loving, dutiful son (p. 3).
"The annals of science do not furnish an instance of any one who surpassed Swedenborg in that humility of spirit, and that simple desire for truth, which is the crowning grace and glory of the true philosopher. He simply lays down what he believes to be the truth and with the most charming modesty trusts for its acceptance among men to its agreement with reason and faith.... Often we shall have to observe with what independence, yet with what humility and simplicity, he recorded the truths which it was his mission to reveal" (pp. 23, 2).
"Of the gentle and earnest piety of his soul we have a striking proof in his 'Rules of Life.' More need not be said on this head, than that he kept these vows.... At no time did Swedenborg insult his Maker with upbraidings that his fate was to live in an evil world and with a wicked generation. He received life with thankfulness, partook temperately of all its lawful pleasures, did his duty, and took care while living with the world to keep himself unspotted from its evil.... He lived a life of utmost purity .... That he was no harsh despiser of the sex, we know well from his writings; and that his life was in agreement with his books we also know. The loveliest descriptions of female grace and beauty we have ever met with, are contained in his works, chiefly in his treatise on "Conjugial Love" (pp. 25, 18, 1, 6).
Mr. White in 1867.
"He was a man with a small heart under the government of a large head .... It is therefore without surprise, that I discover no friendships in Swedenborg's life. His most intimate intercourse appears to have been with his brother-in-law, Archbishop Benzelius, and that never went deeper than a mild intellectual regard (I, p. 183).
"Reticent and cautions was Swedenborg. He wanted none of his; father's assurance; but bred in a better school his tongue did not wag so freely ... One of the vices of his mind was an impatience of uncertainty, and to attain a fully rounded doctrine he was far too ready to cover the unknown with theory, evolved from very imperfect data of the known.... He was afflicted with the itch of simplicity .... The fact is, that the truths he saw he was as unable to set forth in fair logical, as in fair rhetorical trim. He tumbled out his ideas, instead of setting them out; or more correctly, he tried to set them out, but with a success little greater than if he had tumbled them. Something of this disorder and incompleteness maybe charged against his self-satisfaction and his solitary life. He was content to test his work by his own eye alone, and neither sought nor cared to have the verdict of others" (I, p. 182, 107, 109, 184).
"After the custom of unmarried men in the upper ranks of life in Sweden, and especially Stockholm, he kept a Mistress; and she, assisted by his absorption in business and study, may have conspired to hold him unwedded." In referring to the statement ascribed to Gen. Tuxen [see Note 27] Mr. White says, "It may have been that Swedenborg was misunderstood by General Tuxen, and that 'Italy' was supplied by his imagination. Yet there is fair cause for belief in both Mistresses. The confession to Tuxen was not exhaustive, and Robsahm did not know everything. Moreover the Italian Mistress is more credible after the Stockholm one even as the chances of marriage are greater with widowers h, than bachelors" (Edition of 1868, pp. 53, 92).*
* The charge that Swedenborg kept mistresses, which rests on the testimony of Robsahm, and the alleged testimony of General Tuxen, is fully examined and proved to be utterly unfounded in Note 27, Vol. I; the testimony of Gen. Tuxen is further examined in Document 255, p. 437.
(c) ON SWEDENBORG'S WRITINGS GENERALLY.
Mr. White in 1856.
"Swedenborg never treats his readers to long moralizings, that can be condensed into one paragraph; but all his writings are crowded with thought, so that one is prompted not to condensation, but to expansion" (p. 108).
"His long series of scientific works had gained him a wide-spread reputation, and wherever he went, he was hailed as a friend and brother by the thoughtful and philosophical .... 'The worth of these [scientific] books has been their preservative, and now we behold their resurrection, and slow, but certain growth into acceptance and fame. Translated by Wilkinson, and enriched with prefaces, which Emerson describes as 'throwing all the contemporary philosophy of England into the shade,' they are now placed before the world, and in their excellence serve to manifest the profound understanding and genius of their author" (pp. 23, 20).
Swedenborg's name, which in past times has too often been used to point , sarcasm at whatever is visionary and transcendental, has of late years been slowly rising into estimation. Slowly, but surely, his writings are claiming attention. Considerable curiosity exists in large circles to know more of him, of what he did, what were his doctrines, and the nature and number of his books" (p. 1).
Mr. White in 1867.
Concerning Swedenborg's scientific and philosophical writings White says: "From a literary point of view these writings merit but little praise.... As a whole they are diffuse, iterative, and confused to an oppressive degree" (I, p. 176). Concerning the theological writings he says, "We can readily believe from the looseness and iteration of his style, that he wrote rapidly.... Swedenborg is voluminous in the worst sense; he is voluminous by repetition. His mind was orderly, but loose. He could only be exact at the expense of prodigious space" (II, pp. 510, 670).
"To keep writings like his [scientific works] before the eye of the world required persistent personal activity, and the service of a clique of admirers as claqueurs.... Had his [scientific] writings, as they exist, been published in English or French it is not likely that they would have had any very great success.... Swedenborg's scientific works fell as dead from the press last century as they did at their attempted revival in this" (I, pp. 174, 176, 180).
"The same works have been translated, printed, advertised, sold at cost price, distributed gratis and lodged in public libraries, and the world behaves now very much as it did then--pays no heed to them whatever" (11, p. 304).
(d) ON PARTICULAR WRITINGS.
Mr. White in 1856.
"Swedenborg's ideas on this [Decimal System], and most other subjects were far ahead of the times in which he lived" (p. 9).
"In speaking of the foregoing works [which include the Miscellaneous Observations], it is difficult, in the few words to which we must limit ourselves, to do them the justice which their originality and daring speculation deserve" (p. 10).
"The 'Opera Philosophica et Mineralia' starts so many topics, is so full of the deepest scientific truth, speculates so boldly, and reaches to such heights of subtle thought, that we must necessarily confine ourselves to a very superficial view..... In magnetism, as in astronomy, the 'Principia' is no less rich in original thought and discovery.... So full is it of truths respecting magnetism--which the world generally supposes to be a novelty of the present day,--that we could not imagine a greater pleasure or surprise awaiting any one devoted to the prosecution of magnetic science, than the perusal of this commonly supposed old-fashioned or antiquated 'Principia' of speculative science.... The 'Principia,' as its translator truly says, 'is a book for the future,' and taking these words in their full import it would be hardly possible to pronounce a higher panegyric" (pp. 12, 15).
"The method pursued in the 'Economy,' &c. is admirable. A careful series of extracts, containing facts from the best anatomists, is prefixed to each chapter, and thence is deduced the author's theory." Of the "Animal Kingdom" says White, "Taking for his basis the dry facts of the anatomists he proceeds to clothe them with life and comeliness. He shows how part is bound to part in the human system, and fills the cold details of science with a warm and human interest..... The worth of these books ['Economy' and 'Animal Kingdom'] has been their preservative, and now we behold their resurrection, and slow, but certain growth into a acceptance and fame. They are now placed before the world, and in their excellence serve to manifest the profound understanding and genius of their author" (pp. 19, 22, 23).
"'The Worship and Love of God' is a book of which little need be said, as it was probably written as much for an exercise of fancy, as with any serious intent" (p. 22).
"The 'Diary' is a work not suited for an early student of Swedenborg. The principles on which it is written, not being understood, a young reader could hardly fail to form erroneous ideas from it, and misjudge the work itself" (p. 35).
"No one who makes an intimate acquaintance with the 'Diary' will ever after allow a shadow of doubt to cross his mind as to the candour and truth of Swedenborg; for in every page, he will perceive that quiet and solemn earnestness which belongs alone to the upright and honest in heart. In its whole range of experience he will detect no vanity, shuffling, double-dealing, or anything inconsistent with his published works" (p. 34).
"The earnest reader of the 'Arcana' will never question the reality of Swedenborg's mission. He would as soon question the reality of his own existence.... We never take down a volume of the 'Arcana' to read, without feeling more and more assured that Swedenborg was an anointed servant of the Lord... No criticism, however reverential, can adequately express the innumerable and marvellous excellencies of the work" (pp. 41, 42).
On p. 96 Mr. White quotes with approbation Dr. Wilkinson's opinion of the 'Apocalypse Revealed,' where he says, "a volume, unless it were a reprint, would not give an analysis of the 'Apocalypse Revealed.' When we say that the commentary takes the text word by word, and translates it into spirit, we still convey but a slender idea of what is done. Our own first impressions on reading the work will not soon be forgotten" (p. 96). "Well, then," says Mr. White, "might Swedenborg disclaim the authorship of the ideas in the 'Apocalypse Revealed' and ask, what man can draw such things from himself" (p. 97).
"Interspersed between the various chapters of the treatise on 'Conjugial Love' are memorable relations of scenes which the author beheld in the spiritual world, and conversations he had with spirits and angels on the subject of conjugial love. Many of these possess the most fascinating interest, and convey at the same time the most profound and beautiful truths" (p. 111).
"We append the concluding paragraph of the treatise [on Intercourse], as a delightful specimen of spiritual analogy" (p. 121).
Respecting the "True Christian Religion" Mr. White says, "On all these subjects Swedenborg discourses at length, and in a style which, for its combined simplicity and depth, we believe, is unmatched in theological literature. Wilkinson says truly of the volume, that 'viewed as a digest, it shows a presence of mind, an administration of materials, and a faculty of handling of an extraordinary kind. There is old age in it in the sense of ripeness. If the intellectualist misses there somewhat of the range of discourse, it is compensated by a certain triteness of wisdom. As a polemic, not only against the errors of the churches, but against the evil lives and self-excusings of Christians, the work is unrivalled'" (p. 144).
Mr. White in 1867.
"Benzelius advised Swedenborg to relinquish his last scheme for a new system of money and measures [the Decimal System] as impracticable" (I, p. 61).
"The 'Miscellaneous Observations' are gossip, on a few out of the many scientific plans and fancies seething in his brain" (I, p. 67).
"What is to be said about the 'Principia'? It is a mathematician's ambitious dream.... It is a theory spun out in all its elaboration from his own Soul.... Swedenborg's 'Principia' by its easy 'mathematical method,' makes the Creation of a World little more mysterious than the cooking of a dumpling.... The 'Principia," amongst its few readers in these days, has not wanted admirers, who have found in it anticipations of many subsequent discoveries.... That our modern physical science is most deeply indebted to Swedenborg' is an assertion" (I, pp. 93, 94, 95, 96, 180).
"In order that Swedenborg might discover the Soul in its fastnesses he resolved to pierce the Body from the outside, membrane by membrane. After seven years of search, he gave the world the result in two volumes, entitled, 'The Economy of the Animal Kingdom' . . . . Need I say, that Swedenborg cut up the Body, but did not cut into the Soul? He came to Anatomy, not for instruction, but for confirmation (I, pp. 121, 131, 132.) In the Prologue to his 'Animal Kingdom' Swedenborg says, 'These monsters of Hypotheses are born, have their worshippers and their day of glory, grow old, die, and are forgotten.'" White exclaims here, "What an excellent piece of self-criticism and condemnation have we here! Often whilst discussing 'The Principia' 'The Infinite' and 'The Economy of the Animal Kingdom' have I felt tempted to express my weariness with Swedenborgian dreams in terms like these" (I, p. 153).
"Of course Swedenborg wrote all this [the Worship and Love of God] confessedly as fiction,' says the reader. There is no sign that he did; nay, my own conviction is, that he believed every word of it as sincerely as he ever believed anything" (Vol. I. p. 172).
In violation of the principle that "the 'Diary' is a work not suited for an early student of Swedenborg," which Mr. White laid down in 1856; in 1867 the very first work which he discusses with early students of Swedenborg is the "Diary."
"The pieces in the 'Spiritual Diary' possessing any living interest are commonly sundered by wide tracts of wordy barrenness, which it is hardly possible for even the dullest reader to trudge through sentence after sentence without skipping" (Vol. I, p. 290).
"Eight volumes quarto on Genesis and Exodus make certainly an alarming appearance, but such is the 'Arcana Coelestia!'... The bulk of this work is greatly increased by the insertion, between each chapter, of papers descriptive of Swedenborg's own angelic and diabolic experiences... The whole is written in his customary diffuse style and with wearisome repetition" (I, p. 325).
Speaking of the "Apocalypsis Explicata," and the "Apocalypsis Revelata" White says, "The second work is much inferior to the first; it is less diffuse, but it is about as dry as a dictionary... I can scarcely imagine how Swedenborg had the heart to replace the 'Apocalypsis Explicata' with that bony affair, the 'Apocalypsis Revelata'" (Vol. II, p. 310).
"The course of the treatise [on 'Conjugial Love'] is broken at intervals by 'Memorabilia'-adventures and discussions in the Spiritual World chiefly illustrative of Conjugial Love: some contain curious items of experience, touched with poetry, but the interest usually evaporates in long-winded disquisitions-angels, male and female, launching out into most intolerable Swedenborgian metaphysics" (II, p. 405).
"There is not much in the short treatise on 'Intercourse'" (II, p. 460).
"There is a novel peculiarity the style of the 'Vera Christian Religio'--a prodigious efflorescence of imagery. If anything good or bad is described, it is said to be like this and like that through line after line; indeed if comparisons were struck out, the big book would be sensibly diminished, and not disadvantageously; for most of them are forced, far-fetched, or grotesque, and do little to illustrate the text.... The Memorabilia of adventures and discussions in the Spiritual World (many of them of tedious 'yarns' indeed) gave offence to some who otherwise approved the work" (II, pp. 569, 570).
(e) MISCELLANEOUS.
Mr. White in 1856.
Meanwhile he learned Hebrew and read the Bible through several times in the original language" (p. 33).
"Mathesius himself, in later years, went out of his senses" (p. 151).
Mr. White in 1867.
"In the beginning of 1747 Swedenborg commenced to learn Hebrew, and read the Old Testament through once or twice" (I, p. 249). "After the opening of his spiritual sight, he learned Hebrew, and struggled through the Scriptures twice or thrice" (II, p. 344).*
* Swedenborg's own statement on this subject is, "When heaven was opened to me, I had first to learn the Hebrew language, as well as the correspondences according to which the whole Bible is composed, which led me to read the Word of God over many times" (Document 234).
"Mr. White says in his Preface, "It will be observed, that it [the Book of Dreams] has enabled me to vindicate the memory of the Rev. A. Mathesius, who for many years has been hooted through Swedenborgian literature as slanderer, and subsequently a madman" (I, p. vii).
In what manner Mr. White "vindicated the memory of Mathesius" will be seen below in Division IV.
II.
CONTRADICTIONS IN MR. WHITE'S "LIFE" OF 1867.
Contradictions similar to those which exist between Mr. White in 1856 and Mr. White in 1867, occur also in his "Life" of 1867, where we meet with the following contradictory expressions:
Mr. White in 1856.
"If Swedenborg desired fame he never left the path of good sense to look for it ... The desire for fame, or gain, or vengeance has provoked many a head into brilliant action; but in Swedenborg such passions were either weak or dormant. His intellectual powers were set in motion by the gentle fire of that Love whose single joy is the knowledge of the truth" (I, p. 183).
"Beneath his strangest affirmations there lies a substratum of reason, which redeems him more or less effectually from the charge of folly or fanaticism (II, p. 3). Truth, for its own sake, he sought through all his years with a placid deep-flowing and irresistible persistency ... He seems to me one of the finest specimens of the Achromatic Mind working through perceptive faculties of singular size and clearness, that biography records" (I, p. 183).
"These passages [from the 'Economy,' &c., on the nature of the soul] are well worth careful notice; as they mark a great advance in Swedenborg's mind" (I, p. 48).
"In what a different sense Swedenborg is here [Prologue to 'Animal Kingdom'] speaking of the Soul from that in which he formerly spoke" (II p. 151).
Mr. White in 1867.
"Swedenborg lived to the end, hankering after recognition from the Scribes and Pharisees, from authorities, civil and ecclesiastical (I, p. 322). He fancied it would advance his Jerusalem in the favour of the great potentates of Europe if they learned that their predecessors were in heaven, and forthwith he reported Elizabeth of Russia, and Louis XIV of France, and George II of England as among the Blessed. I do not accuse him of any conscious humbug in these stories: I only adduce them to prove that he was liable to see what he wished to see" (II, p. 684).
"It is surprising to see the coolness with which he delivers conjectures as facts... It is curious to observe the constant illusion he lived under, that he was reasoning and proving when he was only backing up his original assertion with new ones: his imaginary arguments are nothing but prolonged affirmations (II, pp. 665, 671). With such ponderous and anile stuff did Swedenborg belabour his adversaries" (II, p. 515).
"Seven years before, Swedenborg had settled what the Soul was, he had pronounced it 'the last and subtilest part of the Body.' He came therefore to Anatomy, not for instruction, but for confirmation" (I, pp. 131, 132).
III.
MR. WHITE ON SWEDENBORG'S "CONJUGIAL LOVE."
Part II of Swedenborg's work on "Conjugial Love" is entitled: "The Pleasures of Insanity respecting Scortatory Love." In referring to this in his Life of Swedenborg, published in 1856, Mr. White says: "This portion of the treatise on 'Conjugial Love' has subjected Swedenborg to some 'gross calumny,' which, if sincere, could only have arisen from a very superficial acquaintance with the principles of the author; and yet it is hardly possible for a man to write on such subjects, without provoking the censure of the sickly virtuous, and the hypocritically pure.
Religious people too generally treat the dire sexual evils which infest and corrupt society with silence and aversion; passing them by as the priest and the Levite did the wounded traveller. When the spirit of Jesus more fully actuates the church, and the love of the neighbour prompts to heal the world's evils by all efficient means, then, we have no doubt, Swedenborg Scortatory Love will be taken into counsel" (p. 111).
As Mr. White on so many points connected with Swedenborg has contradicted the declarations which he made respecting him in 1856, we need not be at all surprised that in 1867 he also became one of the "sickly virtuous and hypocritically pure" who "censured" Swedenborg on Scortatory Love, and "subjected him to gross calumny."
Before exposing the "gross calumny" to which he "subjects" Swedenborg on this subject, it will be first of all necessary to state the general grounds which Swedenborg occupies in this matter. He says: "Every human being is born corporeal, and is made more and more interiorly natural, and in proportion as he loves intelligence he becomes rational, and, finally, if he loves wisdom, he becomes spiritual. Now as a man advances from the state of mere knowledge in childhood into intelligence, and from intelligence into wisdom, so also his mind changes its form; for it is opened more and more and conjoins itself more intimately with heaven, and by heaven with the Lord; hence he becomes more enamoured of truth, and more studious of the good of life. If now he stands still on the threshold of this progression to wisdom, the form of his mind remains merely natural; and this receives the influx of the universal sphere of the marriage of good and truth in the same manner in which it is received by the inferior subjects of the animal kingdom, which are called beasts and birds; and as these are merely natural, the man in such a case becomes like them, and thereby loves the sex just as they do. But the more intelligent and wise man becomes, the more he becomes internal and spiritual, and the more the form of his mind becomes perfected; and this interior or spiritual form receives conjugial love; for man then perceives and feels in this love a spiritual delight, which is interiorly full of blessedness; and from this a natural delight which derives the whole of its soul, of its life, and of its essence from the former" (C. L. 94, 95).
The relation between "conjugial love" and the "love of the sex" Swedenborg describes thus, "Conjugial love with man is in the love of the sex as a gem in its matrix" (Ibid., no. 97). And further, "Love truly conjugial which is discussed here is quite different from what is commonly called 'conjugial love;' for this with some is a merely limited love of the sex.
Love truly conjugial is only with those who have a desire for wisdom, and who, prompted by this desire, progress in it more and more. These the Lord foresees, and for these He provides conjugial love. This love, indeed, with them commences from the love of the sex, or rather by the love of the sex, but it does not originate in it. It takes its origin in proportion as wisdom advances with them, and progresses to light; for wisdom and conjugial love are inseparable companions. Conjugial love commences by the love of the sex, because before a suitable companion is found, the sex is loved in a general way: it is regarded with a fond eye, and is treated with civility from a ground of morality: for the young man has to make his choice; and while this is determining, from an innate inclination to marriage with one woman, which lies concealed in the inmost of his mind, his external part receives a gentle warmth. And as the determinations to marriage for various delayed even to riper years, the beginning of conjugial love meanwhile has the appearance of lust, which with some actually passes off into the love of the sex; yet even with them the bridle is relaxed not more than is conducive to health. This, however, is said of the male sex; because this has stimulations which actually inflame; but it does not apply to the female sex."
The nature of love of the sex is further described by Swedenborg in the chapter on "Fornication" from nos. 444-460. We read there, "The love of sex is a fountain from which both conjugial love and scortatory love may be derived. They may be derived by passing through fornication, and they may be derived without passing through it. For the love of sex belongs to every man, and it either manifests itself in act (exserit se), or it does not manifest itself in act. If it manifests itself in act before marriage with a prostitute, it is called fornication; if it manifests itself first with a wife, it is called marriage; if after marriage with another woman it is called adultery; wherefore, as mentioned above, the love of sex is like a fountain from which both chaste love and unchaste love may proceed (no. 445). Again the Author says, "That the lust of fornication is not the lust of adultery every one sees from common perception. What law, and what judge imputes a like criminality to the fornicator as to the adulterer? Common perception sees this difference, because fornication is not opposed to conjugial love like adultery. In fornication conjugial love may lie stored up as what is spiritual may lie stored within what is natural" (no. 449).
Swedenborg afterwards continues to treat this subject under the following heads: (a) "With some men the love of the sex cannot without hurt be totally restrained from going forth into fornication; wherefore in populous cities public brothels are tolerated."
(b) "Fornication is light, so far as it looks to conjugial love and gives that love the preference; but it becomes grievous, so far as it looks to adultery; and it looks to adultery, when adultery is not believed to be a sin, and when marriages and adulteries are looked upon as alike, the only difference being that the former are permitted, and the latter prohibited, by law. Fornication, however, becomes still more grievous when it degenerates into the lust of varieties, and into the lust of defloration. Care, therefore, must be taken lest by immoderate and inordinate fornications conjugial love be destroyed." (c) "With those who for various reasons cannot as get enter into marriage, and, from their passion for the sex, cannot moderate their desires, the conjugial principle is preserved when they limit the vague love of the sex to one mistress; wherefore keeping a, mistress is preferable to promiscuous fornication, provided only one mistress be kept, and she be neither a virgin, nor a married woman; and provided this state be kept separate from conjugial love. This state, however, is kept separate from conjugial love, when marriage is not promised to the mistress and when no hope of marriage is ever held out to her." (d) "Nevertheless," says Swedenborg in the end, "it is preferable that the torch of the love of the sex be first kindled with a wife."
Such is the doctrine which Swedenborg sets forth in his treatise on Conjugial Love on the subject of fornication and keeping a mistress.
Let us now listen to Mr. White's language on this subject in 1867, "To discuss the subject of Fornication superficially would be worse than useless; to discuss it thoroughly is beyond our province; but I cannot leave the matter without expressly disowning sympathy with Swedenborg's treatment of the case. Admitting the mischiefs of Celibacy to the fullest, I shrink from the remedy of Mistress- keeping, seeing no advantage in it whatever, economical or otherwise. It may be, that in some or many cases early Marriage is inconvenient, but what inconvenience will a Christian set against the shame of Fornication and the degradation of Woman" (Vol. II, p. 414).
Mr. White does not advance here a single statement showing that Swedenborg's explanation of the "love of the sex" and of "fornication" is incorrect; and he refuses to see a distinction between "promiscuous fornication" and "keeping a mistress;" he thus shows by his treatment of this subject that he is one of the "sickly virtuous and the hypocritically pure," whose censure, he said in 1856, Swedenborg provoked by his treatise on Scortatory Love.
In what follows, however, he becomes guilty of the same "gross calumny," to which, he says, Swedenborg became "subjected" by writing the latter part of his treatise on "Conjugial Love." He says:
"It is to be feared that Swedenborg's own habits betrayed him into this apology for Fornication." Mr. White evidently makes here the charge of fornication against Swedenborg; the calumnious nature of which charge has been exposed in Note 27, and also in Document 255, p. 437.
Mr. White continues, "Amazing is his heathenish neglect of the Woman in the prescribed transaction! A youth of vigorous passions may keep a Mistress and thereby preserve mental and physical equanimity; but what of the Woman thus sacrificed? Nothing: Swedenborg has not a. word to say about her though Hell is her portion. True, the Mistress must be neither Maid nor Wife; but how Mistresses thus qualified are to be procured, he leaves us to infer." Swedenborg says expressly that "a Mistress must be neither Maid nor Wife;" from this, however, it follows that in case all women are either Maids or Wives, an unmarried man can have no mistress, and he has to do without one. But as to "hell being the portion of a mistress," this is a fiction of Mr. White's brain which he falsely imputes to Swedenborg. In A. C. 1113, to which passage Mr. White appeals in support of his assertion, we read as follows: "There are girls, otherwise of a good disposition, who became prostitutes, and were persuaded that there is nothing bad in it. As these were not yet of age, and had not yet the requisite knowledge and judgment of such a life, they have a severe master appointed over them who chastises them whenever in their thoughts they entertain such wrong notions. Of him they are very much afraid; and in this way they are vastated. But adult women who were prostitutes and enticed others, do not undergo vastation, but are in hell." Swedenborg thus expressly says that the portion of prostitutes and mistresses is not necessarily hell, but that those who are "otherwise of a good disposition" are capable of being vastated of their evils, and thus of being finally saved.
Mr. White, like the majority of those whom in 1856 he styled the "sickly virtuous and the hypocritically pure," in 1867 is unwilling to see those distinctions which Swedenborg points out between "promiscuons fornication," and "keeping a mistress," and he condemns as unpardonable any indulgence of the sexual passion except in "honest wedlock;" for, says he, "To speak the truth is often highly inconvenient, but a moralist does not encourage us to evade the inconvenience by falsehood. No, he says, speak the truth and bear the penalty. So with Sexual Passion, Gratify it in honest wedlock, and accept the consequences" (II, p. 415).
This also is the reason why Mr. White, in contradiction to Swedenborg, condemns all "mistresses" to hell.
As Mr. White is unwilling to see a distinction between the two kinds of fornication, one of which destroys conjugial love, and the other preserves it; so also he is unwilling to see a like distinction which Swedenborg makes in concubinage, and he again joins the "sickly virtuous and the hypocritically pure" in subjecting. Swedenborg to "gross calumny:' for making such a distinction. For, says he (II, p. 415), "His [i. e. Swedenborg's] treatment of concubinage, defined as the 'intercourse of a married man with a harlot' (C. L. 469), is even more repulsive."
To this must be objected, in the first place, that Swedenborg in the passage referred to does not define concubinage as the "intercourse of a married man with a harlot," but he defines it there as the "conjunction of a married man entered into (pacta) with a woman."
Swedenborg's own words on this subject are as follows, "That there are two kinds of concubinage, which differ exceedingly from each other, and that one kind consists in adjoining a substituted partner to the bed, and living conjointly and at the same time with her and with a wife; and that the other kind consists in engaging, after a legitimate and just separation from a wife, a woman in her stead as a bed-associate; and that these two kinds of concubinage differ as much from each other as dirty linen differs from clean, may be seen by those who take a considerate and distinct view of things, but not by those whose view of things is confused and indistinct; it may be seen also by those who are in conjugial love, but not by those who are in the love of adultery" (C. L. 463).
Swedenborg, besides, makes a distinction between the essence of marriage, which is a conjunction of souls and hence of the body; and the form of marriage which is the external ratification of marriage by the laws of the state and of the church (nos. 156, and 306-310). He declares, besides, that "the external bonds of wedlock must continue in the world till the decease of one of the parties" (no. 276).
According to Swedenborg there are therefore internal and external marriage bonds; and when the internal marriage bonds are dissolved, he declares it to be a cause of separation from the bed, and also from the house; but when not only the internal but also the external bonds of marriage are broken, then he defines this as a cause of divorce.
The causes of Divorce are stated by Swedenborg in no. 468, and the causes of separation from the bed, and also from the house in nos. 252 and 253; and these causes he says, in nos. 468-473, are also "legitimate and just causes of concubinage."
Swedenborg in laying down the just causes of separation, which are also just causes of concubinage, is most particular in stating that the mental and bodily union with the wife must be permanently broken off or obstructed, and Mr. White, according to his own judgment in 1856, has not only misrepresented, but even "grossly calumniated" Swedenborg by withholding from his readers Swedenborg's definite language on this subject.
The language which Mr. White supressed is contained in no. 253, to which Swedenborg especially referred in no. 470, from which Mr. White quoted in Vol. II, p. 417. We read there, "By vitiated states of the body are not meant accidental diseases which pass away; but inherent diseases which do not pass away, and which are taught by pathology."
On the strength of his garbled statement of Swedenborg's doctrine, Mr. White exclaims (II, p. 418), "Under these elastic conditions it would be hard to say who might not find an excuse for Concubinage. Swedenborg trusts to husbands not to abuse their liberty, or seek a license for indulgence in the temporary ailments of their Wives; holding firmly moreover to the proviso, 'that whilst Concubinage continues no connection with a Wife is allowable.'"
In conclusion Mr. White repeats (p. 419) an exclamation which he already made on p. 415 in connection with mistresses, "As of Mistresses so of Concubines, our Author assumes their existence, and does not deign to bestow on them a syllable of consideration. The heartlessness is noteworthy in the Apostle of the New Jerusalem." In respect to the first statement we have simply to repeat here, that if there are no women to fill the places of mistresses and concubines, the men will have to do without them. But in respect to the alleged "heartlessness of the Apostle of the New Jerusalem," we shall simply quote against Mr. White in 1867, Mr. White in 1856, who says, "When the spirit of Jesus more fully actuates the church, and the love of the neighbour prompts to heal the world's evils by all efficient means, then, we have no doubt, Swedenborg on Scortatory Love will be taken into counsel."
Thus far we have answered the objections which Mr. White takes to Swedenborg's statements on concubinage. Yet there is another objection which is frequently raised to Swedenborg's treatment of this question. It is said, "This indulgence, i. e. concubinage, according to the doctrine set forth by Swedenborg, is granted to man, but not under any circumstances is a corresponding indulgence granted to women."
This permission is given to men, and not to women, because men and women in respect to the love of the sex are differently constituted. We read in "Conjugial Love," no. 296, "With men is the love of the sex in general, but with women the love of one of the sex. In order to be confirmed on this subject inquire of the men you meet what are their sentiments respecting monogamical and polygamical marriages; and you will seldom meet with one who will not reply in favour of polygramical marriages; this also is a love of the sex; but ask the women what their sentiments are respecting such marriages, and almost all, except common women of the street, will reject polygamical marriages; from which it follows, that with the women there prevails the love of one of the set, and thus conjugial love."
Man by nature is in the love of the sex in general, and by marriage is raised out of this general love of the sex into the love of one of the sex. In this limited love of the sex he is kept by the wife whom he marries; and this love is imparted to him by his wife, because she by nature is in the love of one of the sex, and thus in conjugial love. If a state of internal and external separation ensues between the husband and his wife, he is separated thereby from her conjugial love, and thus from the love of one of the sex, and hence he comes again into the general love of the sex, in which he was before marriage. If he, therefore, under such circumstances should attach himself to another woman, a concubine, he would not thereby be introduced into a lower, baser love; but he would simply be, as to his love of the sex, in the state in which he was before marriage.
Concubinage is an extra-conjugial connection entered into on the basis of the love of the sex in general, into which he comes again, when he is separated from the conjugial love of his wife.
The reason, however, why it is not allowed to woman, under similar circumstances, to attach herself to another man, before the legal ties with her first husband are broken off by divorce, is because in the case of the wife, just as in the case of the husband, this would be an extra-conjugial relation formed on the basis of the love of the sex; for as long as the marriage-compact is not annulled, all sexual relations are formed on the basis of the love of the sex, and not on that of conjugial love, which is genuine marriage love. If a man, for a just cause, enters into such a relation, he is not introduced thereby into a lower, baser love, but woman is; for out of conjugial love into which she is born, and which is a spiritual love, she descends into the lower, natural love of the male sex in general;
and from having been a wife, the custodian of the sacred fire of conjugial love, she becomes the servant of the merely natural love of the sex and, in future, instead of filling the place of a wife, she can at best aspire to fill only that of a mistress or a concubine.
Another reason why there is a different law for men and women in this respect is this, that "the male sex," as is well known, "has stimulations which actually kindle and inflame, but which is not the case with the female sex.
In conclusion, in characterizing the different mode in which the subject of marriage is treated by Swedenborg, and the world in general, we cannot do so in more appropriate language than that in which this was done by Mr. White in 1856, "This portion of Swedenborg's treatise on 'Conjugial Love' has subjected him to some superficial acquaintance with the principles of its author; and yet it is hardly possible for a man to write on such subjects, without provoking the censure of the sickly virtuous, and the hypocritically pure.... When the spirit of Jesus more fully actuates the church, and the love of the neighbour prompts to heal the world's evils by all efficient means, then, we have no doubt, Swedenborg on Scortatory Love will be taken into counsel."
IV.
MR. WHITE ON SWEDENBORG'S ALLEGED INSANITY.
In Vol. I, p. 245, Mr. White says, "Most readers of this chapter will be ready to exclaim, The man had gone mad!--an opinion I am careless to contest." And again he says, "Not all the jargon gathered from the most learned treatises of the most enlightened 'mad Doctors' will avail to impose such a conclusion on any intellect in which common sense is stronger than scientific credulity."
The reader of the Documents on reading this statement of Mr. White will naturally exclaim, Mr. White, then, is opposed to the stories circulated by the Revs. J. Wesley and A. Mathesius, by which they endeavoured to prove that Swedenborg went mad! We shall see.
Mr. White pits Mathesius' statement which Wesley printed in 1781 (Document 270, B, p. 586 et seq.) against Wesley's statement in 1783 (Document 270, A, p. 584) which he made on the authority of Mathesius and Brockmer, in these words:
"With the true story of Brockmer before us, communicated to Wesley by Mathesius, and printed by Wesley within three years in the same 'Arminian Magazine,' we ask, 'Can anything be more discreditable to Wesley's veracity than this second story? It is superfluous at this day to pay compliments to Wesley for his zeal, ability, and blessed labours; these are universally confessed; but we cannot forget, that he was a sad gossip and that truth was nearly certain to suffer when it encountered his dislike or self-will. The instance before us is no more than characteristic of his loose and unscruoulous habit of writing and speaking." Mr. White finishes his arraignment of John Wesley in these words: "The narrative of Brockmer preserved by Mathesius ought to be kept entirely apart from Wesley's, which is to be consigned, without hesitation, to the refuge of lies" (I, p. 229).
Mr. White in this manner gets rid of John Wesley's statement in 1783; but there is still Mathesius' account published by Wesley in 1781 in the field. This Mr. White puts on one side, on p. 220, in the following words: "Mathesius some years afterwards [i. e. after he had come to London in 1766] gave the Rev. John Wesley a copy of Brockmer's narration, which Wesley printed in his Arminian Magazine for January, 1781. We have also in manuscript, in Swedish, the story directly from Mathesius's own hand. This I have had translated, and from it print. With the exception of two or three extra details [?] it is precisely the same as that given in the Arminian Magazine."
But, says Mr. White in 1856, Mathesius' testimony is of no account, because "he himself, in later years went out of his senses." To this declaration, however, Mr. White in 1867 takes violent exception, and he exclaims in his preface (p. vii), "It will be observed that it [the Book of Dreams] has enabled me to vindicate the memory of the Rev. A. Mathesius, who for many years has been hooted through Swedenborgian literature as a slanderer, and subsequently a madman."
How Mr. White by the publication of Mathesius' account of 1796 was able "to vindicate his memory," appears from Document 270, where the two accounts of Mathesius are compared in parallel columns, and where it is shown that these accounts, far from differing simply by "two or three extra details," as alleged by Mr. White, are full of inconsistencies and contradictions.
Mr. White is as little successful in the other endeavours which he makes to vindicate the memory of Mathesius. On p. 232 he appeals to the records of the Swedish Church to bear out his statement that "Mathesius was never insane;" and in proof of this quotes from the published "Records of the Swedish Church" the subsequent history of Mathesius, which we have embodied in Note 118 (Vol. I, p. 703);
but ignoring another entry, on p. 89, where we find the following statement, "In the summer of 1783 Pastor Mathesius was overtaken by a severe illness, whereby he was disabled from continuing his office," and under the date of May 16, 1784, we read, "In the presence of Mathesius, Magister Andreas Leufenius was installed as his successor. Mathesius had been so far restored that, after being relieved from the ministerial office, he was able to return to his native country, where he remained until his death."
On p. 82 we find, under the date of April 29, 1777, another entry which Mr. White did not deem it advisable to adduce in his vindication of the memory of A. Mathesius, "The Swedish congregation sent a letter to His Royal Majesty, containing the following nine points of accusation against their pastor, Mathesius: arbitrary administration of the money belonging to the Church; personal attacks from the pulpit; keeping the minutes of the congregation in a slovenly manner; refusing the members of the congregation access to the church books; holding church meetings without calling them in a legal way; signing the minutes of the proceedings with the names of members without their knowledge; going into the country without leave of absence; causing dissension in the congregation by exciting the lower classes against the higher, and persuading them that they possess rights which do not belong to them; and, finally, purchasing a parsonage in an unlawful way." As to the question of Mathesius' insanity, we see that the "Records of the Swedish Church" by no means prove the sanity of Mathesius in l783 and 1784; for they, especially, declare that he was overtaken by an illness by which he "was disabled from continuing his office," and they further declare that in 1784 he was "so far recovered that, after being relieved from the ministerial office, he was able to return to his native country."
The special charge of insanity was brought against Mathesius by Springer121 and Bergström.224 Against Springer's character and credibility Mr. White has nothing to say; but Bergström's testimony he seems inclined to question, for he says (I, p. 231), "The third is the testimony of Bergström, the keeper of a Swedish inn, the King's Arms, in Wellclose Square, London, where Swedenborg once lodged for ten weeks, and was, as Bergström said, 'very generous to him;'" and on p. 232 he speaks of his testimony as "the gossip of a publican to whom Swedenborg had been handsome." Mr. Springer's testimony is contained in Document 270, no. 4, p. 610; that of Mr. Bergström in the same Document on p. 611.
The respectability and trustworthiness of Mr. Bergström as a witness is vouched for by the "Records of the Swedish Church," p. 86 (see Note 224).
From all this it appears that the testimony which Mr. White adduces from Mathesius in respect to Swedenborg's alleged insanity, breaks clown completely both when considered intrinsically in itself, and also in connection with the personal character of Mathesius; while Mr. White, on the other hand, is utterly unable to rebut the testimony which is brought against the personal character of his witness, and against the sanity of his mind at least during a portion of his life.
In conclusion we have to state, that, although Mr. White himself refuses to draw from Mathesius' account, as furnished by Mr. White himself, the inference that Swedenborg was insane, his "Life of Swedenborg," published in 1867 and 1868, is nevertheless appealed to as an authority proving this charge by men such as Dr. H. Maudsley in the "Journal of Mental Science," July, 1870; Mr. A. Fryxell, the Swedish historian, in his "Biography of Swedenborg," published in 1876 (see Note 254); and by a number of smaller lecturers and journalists who, in writing lectures and articles on Swedenborg, have drawn mainly on Mr. White's book for their information--so that in the face of the world he is in a great measure answerable for the slander and calumny which since the year 1867 have been raised, not only against the moral character of Swedenborg, but also against the sanity of his mind.
V.
CHARGES OF ERROR REPUTED.
Thus far it seems that Mr. White's aim in writing his "Life of Swedenborg" in 1867 and 1868 has been to throw discredit upon, and contradict the "Life of Swedenborg" which he published in 1856, forgetting that his "Life" of 1856 throws just as much discredit upon, and contradicts just as strongly, his "Life" of 1867 and 1868. We have seen also that he seems to be particularly anxious to blacken the moral character of Swedenborg, and to bring forward evidence by which it may be proved that Swedenborg was insane. We shall now see him equally anxious to disprove the scientific character of his writings by attempting to show that they contain erroneous and false statements.
(1.) The Sexuality of Plants. In Vol. II, p. 351, Mr. White declares that "in the last work he published, Swedenborg went out of his way to condemn the doctrine of Sexes in plants."
That this is a mere assertion without any rational proof is plainly shown by the Rev. S. M. Warren in the "New Jerusalem Magazine," New Series, 1577, pp. 19-24. From his exhaustive paper we quote as follows: "The facts [of the case] are, that, at least with the more highly organized plants, there are two separate classes of organs, the co-operation of which is necessary to the formation of seed, for their reproduction; that with a comparatively few plants these organs are in separate individuals; with more they are in separate flowers, on the same individuals; and with a still greater number the two classes of organs exist together in the same flower. The duality of function has been found to exist even among most of the cryptogamous, or flowerless, plants.
"Now these facts Swedenborg was neither ignorant of, nor does he anywhere deny them. In general terms he affirms them, as in "Conjugial Love," no. 322, where we read, 'The universal of all the spheres proceeding from the Lord is the conjugial sphere, because this also is the sphere of propagation, and thus the supereminent sphere of conservation of the created universe by successive generations. That this conjugial sphere fills the universe, and pervades all things from first to last, is evident from this, that besides being with human beings, it is also with all the subjects of the animal all the subjects of the vegetable kingdom, from olives and palm-trees even to the smallest grasses.' What Swedenborg denies, is the scientific doctrine founded on the above facts,--that is, the theory and analogy of them. His most explicit declaration on the subject (T. C. R. 585) makes pointed reference to the teaching of 'many of the learned,' the freshest and foremost of whom was Linnus; and was made, undoubtedly, in full view of the facts, the false analogy of which only he denies. He says, 'It has been held by many of the learned, that the acts of vegetation (vegetationes), not only of trees, but also of all shrubs, correspond to those of human prolification. By way of conclusion, I will therefore add something on this subject:--There are not two sexes among trees, and all the other subjects of the vegetable kingdom, a male and a female, but every subject there is male; the earth alone, or ground, is the common mother, and is thus, as it were, the female. For it receives the seeds of all plants; opens them; carries them as it were in the womb, and set the same time nourishes and brings them forth,--that is, ushers them into the light of day; and afterwards clothes, and sustains them.'
"While, on the one hand, it is clear that, in this so deliberate and formal denial of the common doctrine of vegetable sexuality, Swedenborg disputes no fact of science; on the other hand, in the rest of the paragraph taken in connection with the preceding, he presents very strong rational considerations in support of what he declares to be the true analogy and significance of the facts and he confirms the doctrine that the earth alone is the common mother, by reference to its correspondence in the Word. He says:--[That the earth is the common mother may also be spiritually illustrated and is illustrated, by the fact that in the Word the earth signifies the church, and the church is the common mother [of her members], as she is also called in the Word' (Ibid.).
"But let us look at the relative functions of the vegetable kingdom, and the earth, in the matter of reproduction. The vegetable kingdom, like the male of animals, produces only seed. If there are actually two sexes in that kingdom, there should be one class of individuals that bring forth young plants, or, at least, what is equivalent to the egg. But the duality of function, which is observable in the subjects of the vegetable kingdom, is only for the production of seed. A similar duality of function, according to our author, exists in the male of animals, for the same purpose,--and this is the true analogy of the dual function of plants, which has been called sexual. He says, 'The human seed is conceived in the understanding, and formed in the will' (T. C. R. no. 584). Again, the seed of the male fructifies the female; so the seed of plants fructifies the earth. The seed of the male contains the soul, while the body or form is from the female (T. C. R. no. 103); so the vegetative soul or essence of the plant is in the seed, while the body or form is from the earth.
"It has been held--and the idea seems plausible at first sight-that the seeds of plants are equivalent to the eggs of oviparous animals [see White, II, p. 352]; but a careful consideration of all the elements of the problem will show that this is not the case. The egg, containing within itself, as it does, both the paternal and the maternal elements of organization, will develop into the perfect animal, simply by a favourable temperature. This is a well-known fact, and it is attested by our author in A. E. no. 1198. It is not so with the seeds of plants. They have not within them all the elements necessary to the organization of the plant. The paternal is there, but not the maternal. They must therefore like the seed of the male, be implanted in the womb of the earth; and the earth, like the mother, actually contributes of her purest essences to the development of the seed, causing it to germinate, as Swedenborg fully explains in T. C. R. nos. 585 and 499.
"The fact that water, or moisture, will cause seeds to germinate, and that some seeds will grow in water, or in air, without striking their roots into the ground, is no valid objection, of course; because water and air themselves are of the earth, and, moreover, are always more or less impregnated, by solution and exhalation, with other earthly substances, from the essence of which this necessary subtle sphere may emanate and impregnate the seed."
This rational explanation of the generation of plants is a complete answer to Mr. White's assertion (Vol. II, p. 352): "The male secretion corresponds to the pollen of Plants, and the seeds of Plants to the eggs of birds, fishes, and insects."
(2) Louis XV.--In the "Continuation concerning the Last Judgment," no. 60, we read, "It was granted me to speak with Louis XIV., grand-father of the reigning King of France I saw him as if descending by steps; and, after he descended, I heard him saying that he seemed to himself as if he were at Versailles, and then there was silence for about half an hour; which having passed, he said that he had spoken with his (great) grandson the King of France (Louis XV), concerning the Bull Unigenitus, that he should cease from his former design (quod desisteret a priori suo consilio), and not accept it (et illam non acceptaret), because it would be detrimental to the French nation. He said that he had instilled this into his thought profoundly. This occurred in the year 1759, on December 13, about eight o'clock in the evening.
In quoting this passage, and mentioning that the same story is also told in the Diarium Spirituale, no. 5980, and in the Appendix, p. 33, Mr. White says, "Swedenborg seems to be in a maze here: the Bull Unigenitus against the Jansenists was issued by Clement XI in 1713; Louis did not die till 1715: the Bull was therefore promulgated in his own reign."
This question has been thoroughly investigated by Prof. Theophilus Parsons of Harvard College, in the "New Jerusalem Magazine," New Series, 1877, pp. 24-29, who states that in making this investigation he consulted many authorities, the most important of which are Sismondi's History of France, Lacretelle's History of France in the 18th century, and De Tocqueville's reign of Louis XV. The fullest detail of the circumstances, he says, are contained in the work first named. The results at which he arrived, in his own language, are as follows:
"An investigation of the facts of history shows that they are in exact accordance with Swedenborg's statement. The 'maze' is not his.
"Jansenius, a Dutch theologian and a Catholic, attempted a reform in the Church to which he belonged.
His doctrines concerning grace, election, predestination, and the like, were founded upon the writings of Saint Augustine, and were similar to those of Luther and Calvin, and opposed to the doctrine of meritorius works, as held by the Catholics generally, and especially by the Jesuits. Jansenius died in 1638; but his views were adopted widely, and they who held them were called Jansenists. They, without leaving the Catholic Church, resisted the claims of an absolute supremacy of the papacy and the priests. Of course, they were violently opposed, especially by the Jesuits. In 1660, Louis: XIV, who was much under the influence of the Jesuits, declared at a national assembly of the clergy that he regarded it as his religious duty to exterminate Jansenism. But in despite of his efforts Jansenism grew. The conflict between these parties was intensified when one Quesnel published a work on the New Testament which was decidedly Jansenist, and became very popular. The Jesuits attacked it, and Louis XIV induced Clement XI to issue the Bull Unigenitue, which was so called like other Bulls or papal decrees, from its first word. This Bull condemned Quesnel's book, and declared that it contained one hundred and one false and heretical propositions. It was issued in 1713, and as a large portion of the French clergy and people, Cardinal Noailles, Archbishop of Paris, among them, resisted the Bull, a further papal decree was issued in 1718, which threatened all who would not submit unconditionally, with excommunication. These measures quieted the conflict for a time, as all the parties were, or professed to be, Catholics. Still it existed, and manifested itself from time to time, and the number of Jansenists increased. Many men of rank and influence adopted their views, and many who did not care about doctrine or belief of any kind, but who hated and feared the Jesuits and the claims of the Roman church, sided with the Jansenists. The parliaments of France generally, and that of Paris in especial, constantly resisted, as well as they could, the decrees against Jansenism. But in 1730, Louis XV, by royal decree, enforced the Bull as a law of his kingdom, and again the conflict was quieted for some time.....
"In 1753-4-5, the parliament of Paris exerted itself earnestly against the Jesuits and against the Bull Unigenitus, and was strongly sustained. Then King Louis XV interposed to save them. On December 13, 1756, he held a solemn 'lit de justice,'* and compelled the parliament to register an edict consisting of three divisions. The first of these commanded unconditional respect for and submission to the Bull Unigenitus. This edict produced great excitement.
The conflict continued to rage through 1757-8-9. How was it to end?
* "A final measure, and the most solemn act of supreme sovereignty, by which an edict of the King of France had to be registered by the parliament, and thereby acquired the full force of law."
"In 1760, the great question was, What course would the King pursue? In 1713, his great-grandfather, Louis XIV, had promulgated the Bull which sought to crush Jansenism. In 1730, Louis XV, by a regal decree, enforced the same Bull. In 1756, he had again exerted his sovereign power in favour of the Bull and of the Jesuits. What did he do in 1760, the year following the event which Swedenborg narrates? Nothing at all. The Jesuits found themselves deprived of the royal support. The hostility against them increased exceedingly. Louis XV either sympathized with it or yielded to it, and in 1764, he expelled from France the Jesuits whom he had so much favoured and so often sustained.
"How is this entire change in the conduct of Louis XV to be accounted for? History gives no sufficient reason. Swedenborg's statement of what occurred to Louis XV, in the end of 1759, suggests a sufficient reason. It explains what is otherwise inexplicable, and comes just at the time required to make it account fur the fact."
In conclusion Prof. Parsons discusses the phraseology of the passage in the "Continuation," &c., that "he should not accept it," and says that the precise meaning of this passage is explained in the Diarium Spirituale, no. 5980, to which Mr. White refers, where we read "and exhorted him by various (arguments) that he should cease or desist from the Bull Unigenitus (Et hortaretur eum variis quod desisteret a Bulla Unigenita), which Prof. Parsons says "is precisely what Louis XV did."
The precise meaning of this passage is still more pointedly given in the third passage to which Mr. White refers, viz. Diarium Spirtuale, Appendix I, p. 33, where we read, "and he exhorted him that he should cease from confirming the Bull Unigenitus" (et hortatus illum quod desisteret a confirmando Bullam Unigenitus).
VI.
MR. WHITE AND THE "BOOK OF DREAMS."
Mr. White says in Vol. I, p. 197, "The Baron Constant Dirckinck Holmfeld of Copenhagen has very kindly made for me a translation into English of the rough and difficult Swedish of 'The Dreams.' This translation with discreet omissions, has bees printed in the numbers of 'The Dawn' for 1861-62, a monthly magazine published by Mr. F. Putman, 20, Paternoster-row, London.
For the help of curious American readers I may mention, that 'The Crisis,' a paper published at La Forte, Indiana, has reprinted in its columns 'The Dreams' as they appeared in 'the Dawn.'"
In the introduction to Document 205 (p. 136), we expressed our doubts as to Baron Holmfeld being the author of the translation of "The Dreams" which appeared in "The Dawn;" and we stated our reasons for believing that the copy from which that translation had stated also that as the original translation (Dr. Wilkinson's) had disappeared from the Archives of the Swedenborg Society, unable to make any further comparison."
This translation has since been returned to the Society, and by a close comparison between it and the version published in the "Dawn," we are now able to state that this latter version is not an exact reprint of Dr. Wilkinson's translation; but that his translation has served as the basis, on which the version as published by "The Dawn" has been made. Sometimes the differences between these two translations are more extensive, thus showing that Baron Holmfeld made an independent translation of at least portions of the version as published in "The Dawn," but at other times the changes are merely verbal, as appears from the following comparison:
Dr. Wilkinson's translation.
"Descended a great staircase, which ended in a ladder; freely and boldly; below there was a hole, which led down into a great abyss. It was difficult to reach the other side without falling into the hole. There were on the other side persons to whom I reached my hand, to help me over: wakened: signifies, the danger I am in of falling into hell, if I do not get help" (p. 11).
"Moreover, after this, again, when particular matters I had long before thought and rooted in my mind, came up before me, it was as if it was said to me, that I should find reasons to excuse myself; which also was a great temptation; or to attribute to myself the good I had done, or more properly that had happened through me. But God's spirit prevented this also, and inspired me to find it otherwise. This last temptation was stronger than the former, inasmuch as it went to the innermost, and on the other side I had stronger proof of the spirit; for I sometimes burst out into a sweat. That which was suggested was not at all as if it would condemn me more, for I had the strong assurance that this was forgiven me: but it was that I should excuse myself, and make myself free. I burst frequently into tears, not from sorrow, but from inward rejoicing that our Lord had chosen to show so unworthy a sinner such great grace" (p. 24).
"When I was in my thoughts, as was often the case about these very subjects, and any one accounted me as a holy man, and on this account offered me dignity,--as indeed, it happens among certain simple people that they not only venerate but even adore some imaginary holy man, or saint,--I then found that in the earnestness which then possessed me I desired to do him all the ill I could, to the highest degree, in order that nothing at all of the sin should stick to him; and that with earnest prayers I ought to appease our Lord, in order that I might never have any part of so damning a sin to stick to me" (p. 24).
"The Dawn's" translation.
"I descended a great staircase, which ended in a ladder, freely and boldly; below there was a hole which led down to a great abyss. It was difficult to reach the other side without falling into the hole. On the other side there were persons to whom I gave my hand to help me over. I awoke. This signifies the danger I am in of falling into hell, if assistance is not given"(Dawn, 1851, p. 62).
Furthermore, after this, when particular matters I had long before thought of and fixed in my mind came up before me, it was as if it was said to me that I should find reasons to excuse myself; which also was a great temptation; or to attribute to myself the good I had done, or more properly that had happened through me. But God's Spirit prevented this also, and inspired me to find it otherwise. This last temptation was stronger than the former, inasmuch as it went to the innermost, and that I found the evidence of the Spirit so much stronger against it; for I sometimes burst out into a perspiration. That which was suggested was not of such a kind that it could condemn me any more, for I had strong assurance that this was forgiven me; but it was to the effect that I should excuse myself, and make myself free. I burst frequently into tears, not from sorrow, but from interior joy, that the Lord would show so great mercy to so unworthy a sinner" (Ibid., p. 142).
"When I was in my thoughts, as was often the case, about these very subjects, and any one accounted me as a holy man, and on this account offered me honour,--as indeed it happens among certain simple people, that they not only venerate but even adore some imaginary holy man or saint,--I then found that in the earnestness which then possessed me, I desired to him all the ill I could, to the highest degree, in order that nothing at all of the sin should stick to him; and that with earnest prayers I ought to appease our Lord, in order that I might never have any part of so damning a sin to stick to me" (Ibid., p. 142).
These extracts go to prove that the version in "The Dawn" was in a great measure manufactured out of Dr. Wilkinson's translation, which was used for this purpose without the knowledge of the Swedenborg Society, the owners of that translation. As regards the version of "The Dreams" which was used by Mr. White in his Life of Swedenborg of 1867, it is a different translation from that which has been published in "The Dawn;" at least a number of expressions which did not seem strong enough to Mr. White were changed by him to suit his fancy. The following are some of these changes, where W. stands for White, and D. for Dawn;
W. "I wondered also, that I had no desire for women, as I had had all through my life" (I, 200).
D. "I wondered also at not being inclined towards the sex, as I had previously been all my life" (p. 62),
The original is: Undrade at intet wara porterad fr Sexen (I wondered at not being inclined towards the sex), jag warit i all mina dagar (I had been in all my days).
W. "Dr. Morus appeared to be courting a handsome girl, and she allowed him to do with her what he liked" (I, 211).
D. .... "and obtained her consent to take her with him wherever he liked" (p. 221).
The original is: Afick hennes ja (obtained her yea or consent), hade tildng til at taga henne hwar han wille (had permission to take her where he chose).
W. "I nevertheless could not refrain from going after women, though not with the intention of committing acts" (I, 219).
D. "I nevertheless could not refrain from seeking after the sex," &c. ('Dawn' for 1862, p. 42).
There are mistranslations also in other parts; thus Mr. White gives the following translation in Vol. I, p. 200, "She said she was pure, but she had a bad smell." The original has, "She said she was pure, while I had a bad odour" (men jag luchtar illa).
In conclusion we have to state for the information of our readers that the translation of: "The Dreams," as published in "The Dawn" is not complete, and that pp. 57 and 58 of the Swedish original (nos. 190-193, in Document 209) are omitted.
VII.
MISTAKES AND UNSUPPORTED ASSERTIONS.
(1.) "In Paris he made the acquaintance of Pierre Varignon, and at his house met the pleasant Fontenelle" (I, p. 33). There is no statement on record that Swedenborg ever made the acquaintance of Fontenelle.
(2.) "Here [at Marburg] Swedenborg made acquaintance with the great man [the Philosopher Wolf], and chatted, and settled, and resettled the origin of the universe by 'mathematical method' to their perfect satisfaction" (I, p. 80). Swedenborg never mentions having been at Marburg, or having met the Philosopher Wolf.
(3.) "Bishop Swedberg left a considerable fortune. Swedenborg's share added to what he had inherited from his step-mother, placed him in independence" (I, p. 113). Bishop Swedberg did not leave a considerable fortune, but died a poor man: see Note 19.
(4.) "Swedenborg told Ferelius, 'that he never washed his face and hands, and never brushed his clothes; for no dirt or dust would stick to him'" (II, 114). Swedenborg did not tell this story to Ferelius (see Document 267, no. 15, and also footnote in Vol. II, p. 561).
(5.) "From internal evidence 'The Worship and Love of God' appears to have been written about this time, viz. 1735" (I, p. 109). This internal evidence Mr. White has not demonstrated, therefore it is a mere assertion.
(6.) "In 1740 he was likely at Leipzig, for there appeared ten Latin verses from his pen celebrating the third centenary of the art of printing" (I, p. 120). The Latin lines in question appeared for the first time in an edition of Swedenborg's Latin poems, published in 1826 at Stockholm. There is neither external nor internal evidence that Swedenborg wrote these lines; nor is there any evidence of any other kind to prove that he was in Leipzig in 1740.
(7.) "We often think, that the unconscious caricature and the hardness of many of his subsequent views of the Religion of Protestants are to be attributed to the converse and preaching of the United Brethren in Fetter Lane in those days when his mind was awakening to an interest in Divine things" (I, p. 242). According to Swedenborg's own statement in the "Book of Dreams" he had not much to do with them; for the Moravian church, in Document 209, no. 192, is represented by "the woman, in whose company Swedenborg was, yet whom he did not approach."
(8.) In Vol. I. p. 328, he says, "There is nothing in the 'Arcana Coelestia' to oppose the conclusions of Darwin, Lyell, and Huxley" [on the subject of man's derivation from the beast]!!!
VIII.
INACCURACIES.
(1.) White dates Swedenborg's Bostock letter (Document 46) from Greifswalde (I, p. 37).
(2.) He calls Baron C. "Feif" (Note 106) "Pfiff" (I, p. 42).
(3.) Count "Stenbock" he calls "Steinbock" (I, p. 45).
(4.) Says the Ddalus, which was published in 1716, introduced Swedenborg to Polhem (I, p. 47), when yet Swedenborg as early as 1710 spent several months with Polhem at Stjernsund (see Document 38).
(5.) Says "Skinsburg," instead of "Skinskatteberg" (I, p. 63).
(6.) Says "the complete MS. work of the 'Specimens of Chemistry at this day rests in the library of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm" (I, p. 64). The Academy never had this MS.
(7.) Says "it would seem that in 1722 he came for the first time into the full pay of his Assessorship" (I, p. 70). Swedenborg did not get the full salary of assessor until 1730 (Document 158, D).
(8.) Under the date of 1724, he introduces a letter Swedenborg wrote in 1716 (Document 61).
(9.) Says Swedenborg inscribed the whole of his Opera Philosophica, &c., to Duke Rudolph (I, p. 82). Only one volume was inscribed to him; the two other volumes Swedenborg dedicated to the King of Sweden, and to his brother the Landgrave William of Hesse-Cassel.
(10.) Says the King pensioned Swedenborg off with full salary (I, p. 250). Swedenborg, at his own request, was pensioned off with half his salary (Document 167).
(11.) Says "we owe the account of Swedenborg's and Beyer's meeting to Robsahm" (II, p. 301). It is due to Wenngren (Document 280).
(12.) Says "Robsahm tells story of young man who would kill Swedenborg" (II, p. 496). It is Pernety who tells it (Document 6, no. 12).
(13.) Says "for seven years, viz. from 1736-1743 we have no knowledge of Swedenborg" (I, p. 121); when yet on p. 119 he gives an extract from the Itinerarium for 1739.
MR. WHITE AND SPIRITISM.
In 1856 Mr. White wrote, "Of late years it has become common to talk of Swedenborg as a clairvoyant, to associate him with mesmeric objects, and make him a kinsman of French and American Spiritualists, such as Cahagnet and Andrew Jackson Davis. This mistake is made through ignorance.... It is a law of the spiritual world that every man is associated with his like; and thus supposing that any man's spiritual sight were opened, he would come into conjunction only with spirits like himself: that is, with those who would echo his own ideas and opinions, and repeat his own feelings. It is evident then, that in such a case the nature of the revelations made, are entirely dependent upon the character of the revelator, and in such a case the nature of the revelations made, are entirely dependent upon the character of the revelator, and in all must cases must be suspiciously received by the lover of truth.... In his Diary Swedenborg says, 'Spirits narrate things wholly false, and lie. When spirits begin to speak with man, care should be taken not to believe them, for almost everything they say is made up by them, and they lie; so that if it were permitted them to relate what heaven is, and how things are in heaven, they would tell so many falsehoods, and with strong assertion, that man would be astonished; wherefore it was not permitted to me, when spirits were speaking, to have any belief in what they stated. They love to feign. Whatever may be the topic spoken of, they think they know it, and form different opinions about it, altogether as if they knew; and if man then listens and believes, they insist, and in various ways deceive and seduce.' Any one who has paid attention to the phenomena of spirit-rappings and to the communications received through clairvoyants from the world of spirits, and has observed the very Babel of contradictions uttered by these 'mediums,' will be able to appreciate the truth of the passage we have quoted [Spiritual Diary, 1622], as well as our desire to draw a broad and distinct line between such and Swedenborg" (pp. 30, 31).
In 1856, when he wrote his first "Life of Swedenborg," Mr. White professed to see clearly the distinction between the communications received from spiritistic mediums and those revealed through the instrumentality of Swedenborg; in 1867, when he wrote his second "Life of Swedenborg", he had lost the perception of this difference; for we read there: "Spiritualism offers wide and easy access to the other world, the Swedenborgians would have all acquaintance with it confined to the reports of their Author.
If you presume to any knowledge better or beyond his, woe unto you! The great black horrid beast of the Swedenborgian is the Spiritualist. In return, the Spiritualists have no animosity to the Swedenborgians, who occupy but a corner in their great and growing camp. They rank Swedenborg among their chief apostles, and question and adopt his testimony at discretion" (II, p. 6).
Mr. White's conversion to Spiritism appears to date from the year 1859, when the American spiritist Harris came to England. His spiritual manifestations, which differed from the ordinary gross exhibitions of spiritism by rappings and the like, and which were due according to Mr. Harris to the opening of his spiritual sight (as in Swedenborg's case), combined with his extraordinary eloquence, exerted a great influence on some of the New Church people of England, and in the end carried off not only Mr. White, but also Mr. W. M. Wilkinson, the Secretary, and Mr. W. Fryer, the Treasurer, of the Swedenborg Society. Soon afterwards Mr. White began to publish some of Harris's works, and gradually made the Swedenborg Society's publishing house, of which he was the agent, a depository of spiritistic publications. These publications he exposed for sale in the windows of the establishment, and advertised them promiscuously among the works published by the Swedenborg Society.
The members who formed the Committee of the Swedenborg Society first expostulated with Mr. White individually, and requested him to discontinue their publication and their sale. As these private remonstrances proved unavailing, on July 5, 1860, after re-appointing Mr. White "to be Manager at a salary of ,75 a year, and six months notice of separation on either side," the Committee passed the following resolution: Resolved,--That the Committee deem it inexpedient that the writings of the Rev. Thos. L. Harris, or any other works commonly called spiritualistic, shall be kept in stock or exposed for sale in the Society's House; and that the Manager be requested not to permit his name to appear as publisher or agent upon any such works, or to be advertised as a seller of them." This resolution was accompanied with the assurance that Mr. White would be indemnified for any pecuniary loss that he might sustain in complying with the wishes of the Committee. Mr. White was asked if he would comply with the Committee's request, and not being then prepared to answer, a month was given him to consider the matter (see Committee's Circular, dated January, 10, 1861, p. 29).
Meanwhile Mr. W. M. Wilkinson, the Secretary, who was absent from the meeting issued a printed protest against the resolution.
We now quote from the Committee's Circular dated January 10, 1860: "On August 2 the second Meeting of the Committee was held. At this Meeting, Mr. 'White presented a written communication refusing to accede to the Committee's request. Upon this refusal the Committee gave him notice that, at the expiration of six months, his engagement with them would be terminated.
"The third Meeting of the Committee was held on October 4, when the Chairman pointed out to Mr. White the folly of his setting himself in opposition to the Committee; and after considerable discussion,--in the course of which Mr. White stated that he had already withdrawn the objectionable publications from the window and table,--a Paper was drawn up, and signed by Mr. White, of which the following is a copy, as entered in the Minutes:--
"'Mr. White acceded to the wishes of the Committee, and undertook that the objectionable spiritualistic works will not be exposed for sale at the Society's house; and he, moreover, stated that such works have not of late been so exposed. Mr. White also undertook not to publish any more works of Mr. Harris, or any other spiritualistic works, and that he will not increase his present stock of such works. (Signed) 'W. WHITE.'
"The Committee thereupon withdrew the notice which had been given to Mr. White for the termination of his engagement; and Mr. White withdrew his letter to the Committee, so far as it had reference to his refusal to comply with the request of the Committee.
"The Committee did, in fact, believe, at this Meeting of October 4, that a genuine truce had been effected, and hoped--and were led by Mr. White to expect--that the subject, at least so far as he was concerned, would be allowed to rest during their year of office, and then be referred to the Annual Meeting."
In what follows we shall give a minute documentary history of the difficulties between Mr. White and the Swedenborg Society, because this case has been misrepresented lately, and because in a certain sense it constitutes the antecedents of the "Life of Swedenborg" which Mr. White published in 1867, and which we are now discussing, and the facts of this case will enable the general reader to form an idea of the state of mind in which Mr. White was when he wrote that book. The authorities which we have consulted, and from which we shall quote, are 1. The Minute Book of the Swedenborg Society; 2. The Records of the case of Spurgin v. White, before the Court of Chancery, and the case of White v. Bayley and others before the Court of Common Pleas;
3. The Pamphlets published by both parties between July 5, 1860, and July 4, 1861, and especially the "Circulars addressed by the Committee to the Members and Friends of the Swedenborg Society," in November, 1860, and on January 10, 1861.
"On October 13, only nine days after Mr. White's apparent reconciliation with the Committee--a Requisition was sent to the Chairman for a special General Meeting, for the purpose of altering the Laws of the Society, in order to make Mr. White independent of the Committee--the Agent independent of his Employer; in point of fact, practically independent of the Society.
"On October 22 the Committee were convened to take this Requisition into consideration, and quite willing to take the advice of the Society upon the matters in dispute, passed a Resolution in compliance with the Requisition, to call a General Meeting for Monday, November 12. At this same meeting of the Committee, a Sub-Committee was appointed to examine the list of members, and to prepare a revised list of those who were eligible to vote. This was necessary, in order that the notices for the General Meeting might be properly issued. But it was the more important, because it had been ascertained that Mr. White, without any authority, and without the knowledge of the Committee--and, as he declared at this meeting, upon his own responsibility--had cut down the List of Subscribers in the printed Report, nearly one half.... The Committee had I reason to believe also, that besides the reduction of the old List of Members, many new ones had been added. Accordingly at a meeting of the Sub-Committee, held a day or two afterwards, Mr. White--knowing of course, that the facts must come out at the General Meeting, when the new votes came to be used, if not before--seemed to have decided that there was no sufficient motive for further concealment of his new list of subscribers. At that meeting, he laid upon the table two of his own receipt books, one entirely filled, end the other more than half filled, with the counterfoils of receipts to new members. He handed in with these books, a list which he had prepared, of the subscriptions he had receipted for and having done so, immediately left the room, saying he had business in the City." Up to 1860 the number of the members of the Swedenborg Society had been "200 or there abouts;" the names of 85 of these Mr. White on his own responsibility struck from the list on the plea, of their not having paid their subscriptions.
"From an examination of the Society's books it was ascertained that between July 5 and August 6 there were added 165 new names to the list of members--125 on one single day--nearly all of whom were strangers hitherto to the Society, and all but three, at 10s., the lowest rate of subscription that entitles to a vote.
This discovery appeared to the Committee to cell for delay and further investigation, before proceeding to issue the notices for a General Meeting.
"The Committee having discovered these extraordinary circumstances, and, being unable to procure from the Agent any information which would enable either themselves or the scrutineers that might be appointed at the General Meeting, to decide who were and who were not legally eligible to vote, held a meeting on November 8, at which it was resolved:--
"1st. To rescind the Resolution calling a Special General Meeting.
"2nd. To remove the Secretary, who was hostile to the Committee, and could not therefore work harmoniously with them.
"3rd. To dismiss the Agent, on the ground that he had plotted to subvert the authority of his employers, and had refused to answer questions relating to most important business of the Society, and of his agency.
"4th. To take immediate possession of the business premises of the Society; and to give Mr. White legal notice to quit the dwelling apartments.
"5th. To appoint a Sub-Committee, endowed with the full power of the Committee, to carry out the foregoing Resolutions.
"Written notice of his dismissal was handed to Mr. White, and a legal notice forthwith to quit and deliver up to the Committee those portions of the Society's premises which he occupied under his arrangement with the Committee. But he was informed that convenient time would be granted him to make his arrangements to leave the dwelling apartments. The Society's business premises, however, the Committee felt it their duty to take immediate possession of. Yet, in order that this might occasion Mr. White as little inconvenience as possible, a written notice was tendered him to the effect that the Sub-Committee would meet him at any time that it might be convenient to him to appoint, to separate his stock from the Society's stock, and deliver it into his possession.
"It was with the greatest reluctance and regret that the Committee felt obliged to take these summary measures--to which they were advised by eminent legal counsel; and they did so upon the conviction that to leave Mr. White in possession until after the--as they believe illegal, certainly inequitable-Meeting which had been called by his partisans, would be extremely hazardous to the interests of the Society, which had committed to them their trust; that it would, in fact, be surrendering to the Agent that authority and control which the Society had confided to them.
That, believing so, it was their duty so to act, Vice-Chancellor Stuart, in his subsequent judgment in the case, distinctly declared.
"While the Committee felt it to be their duty, however, to take these unpleasant steps, it was their sincere wish and endeavour, to act with all the forbearance and consideration towards Mr. White that the circumstances would admit of.
"Although advised by their Counsel that Mr. White had forfeited his engagement, by the course he had pursued, and was subject to immediate dismissal without notice, and that, under the circumstances, he was not entitled to compensation for want of the six months' notice, yet the Committee made him an offer of compensation, without prejudice. On dismissing him the Chairman read to him a letter in which this was expressly stated.
"The Committee then adjourned: when Mr. White, instead of delivering up the keys of the business premises, went down stairs and locked the doors of those apartments, and put the keys in his pockets. Upon the advice of the Committee's Solicitor, who was present, the Chairman, Dr. Spurgin, accompanied by Mr. Watson, went down and, in the name of the Committee, demanded admittance. Mr. White placed his back against the door, and tacitly refused them admittance--the Sub-Committee then, after consulting with their solicitor, sent for a mechanic to open the door. Mr. White having refused to give up the keys, new locks and bolts were placed upon the doors, and bailiffs put in possession to hold the premises for the Committee. This was done openly, and with full right and authority of law. Mr. White, as decided by Vice-Chancellor Stuart, was never a holder or occupier of the Society's business premises. He was only a servant there. The committee mere his employers. His refusal to admit them was therefore the case of a servant refusing to admit the master to his own premises.
"On November 12 and 13, a meeting was held at Freemasons' Tavern, which was called a meeting of the Swedenborg Society, at which a permanent engagement was entered into with Mr. White (and signed on behalf of the Meeting by Mr. W. M. Wilkinson and Mr. W. Fryer) for a period of seven years, at an annual salary of L125, being L50 a year more than he had been receiving from the Society. The effect of this arrangement--if they could succeed in fastening it upon the Society--was to make the Agent entirely independent of the Committee; and thus in effect to remove the business of the Society out of the hands of its managing body, and transfer it entirely to their paid servant, who would be practically irresponsible, for the long period of seven years....
One of the Resolutions of this pretended Meeting of the Society authorized Mr. White to take any steps to which he might be advised to recover possession of the premises, at the expense of the Society; and also enjoined upon the Committee 'to assist to the best of its power to that end.'
"The Committee, for very good and obvious reasons, did not acknowledge the power and authority of such a meeting, and, of course were not obedient to this injunction. On the contrary, Mr. White having manifested his determination not to appoint, any time for the separation and removal of his stock, in compliance with the notice which had been tendered him more than two weeks before, the Committee instructed their Solicitors to give him a further legal notice to this effect that on Tuesday, November 26, he should attend at the Society's house, 36, Bloomsbury street, for the purpose of selecting and removing his stock of books and other goods from the Society's premises; and that in the event of his not doing so, the Committee would proceed to the best of their ability to separate the same from the Society's stock, and deposit them in some fit place, of which notice would be given him.
"On Monday, November 26--the day before the one appointed in the above notice-Mr. White, assisted by his friend Gardiner, and about a dozen pugilists and roughs--among whom was one Jem Dillon, a notorious prize-fighter--gained admission to the premises, and violently removed the persons whom the Committee had placed in possession.
"In this unseemly state of things a resort to legal proceedings seemed unavoidable. There were three legal courses of action open to the Committee. First, to bring Mr. White, Mr. Gardiner and Jem Dillon, and their associates before a Magistrate, on a criminal charge of riot and assault; secondly, a writ of ejectment; or, thirdly, to file a Bill for an injunction in Chancery. Either of the last two courses, they were legally advised, would give the Committee possession of the premises... The action in Chancery was, upon mature consideration, regarded as preferable.
"A Bill for injunction was accordingly filed. The case was argued before Vice-Chancellor Sir John Stuart, on December 20, 21, and 22. These being, however, the last days of the term of Court, and there not being time therefore for a full hearing of the Cause, the judge, upon this partial hearing, granted a temporary injunction against Mr. White, subject to a final decision upon the full hearing, at the next term of Court. The principal points of the injunction granted were, that Mr. White should cease to act as Agent for the Society; that he should immediately deliver up to the Committee the business premises, and remove his private stock; and that within two months he should deliver up to them also the part of the house in which he resided.
"The Committee accordingly entered into possession of the premises of the Swedenborg Society again. Mr. White, however, gave notice of appeal against the decision of the Vice-Chancellor.
"On January 4, another pretended Meeting of the Society was held--of which a notice had been issued on December 5--to confirm the proceedings of the previous meeting, and to turn out the Committee, and appoint a new one. The principal members of this so-called new Committee were chiefly those partisans of Mr. White, who had most distinguished themselves in the late unhappy proceedings.
"Notice also was given of still another 'meeting of the Society' to turn out the Trustees, who had been found a rather solid obstacle in the way to the accomplishment of their purposes" ("Circular," &c., pp. 40--50).
On January 23, 1861, an order was obtained by the Committee of the Swedenborg Society from the Court of Chancery for Messrs. White, Wilkinson, and Fryer to deposit all books, papers, and documents in their possession in Court.
On February 5 and 6 the case of White v. Bayley was argued in the Court of Common Pleas, Westminster, before the Lord Chief-Justice Erle and a special jury; where Mr. White set forth that the, the plaintiff, was possessed of a shop and premises, and certain books and other property therein, and that the defendants broke and entered his shop and premises and took possession of his goods." In the second count he complains that "the defendants converted his property, that is his goods and chattels, to their own use." After a most searching cross-examination where all the facts of the case as reported up to November 26, 1860, were clearly established, the Lord Chief-Justice declared that he was "of opinion that the plaintiff had not proved in evidence any case to go to the jury, and held that the plaintiff could not sue either in trespass or in trover." After hearing the judgment of the Lord Chief-Justice Mr. White through his lawyer, moved for a new trial.
As Mr. Wilkinson still persisted in acting as the ostensible secretary of the Swedenborg Society, and in that capacity counter-signed cheques to draw the funds of the Society from the Bank, an injunction was granted by the Court of Chancery on March 18, to restrain him and Mr. Fryer from interfering with the Society's moneys.
On Friday, April 19, Mr. White's motion for a new trial came up in the Court of Common Pleas, when it was decided by the Court in Banco that the Lord Chief Justice in his decision of February 6, 1861, was quite right, and a new trial was refused.
See Law Reports, to l. B. n. s. 227, 7 Jurist. n. s. 948.
The decisions both of the Court of Chancery and of the Court of Common Pleas went against Mr. White; yet they did not cover all the issues involved in the case, and new law-suits threatened to arise from it. In order to prevent any future litigation the Swedenborg Society considered it important to arrive at some understanding with Mr. White. The costs of these two suits, also, fell very heavily upon that gentleman, so that he also was fully prepared to submit his real or imaginary claims against the Swedenborg Society to an arbitrator, and abide by his decision. Both parties agreed to accept the Rev. Augustus Clissold, M. A., as the arbitrator.
In the Minute Book of the Swedenborg Society under the date of July 4, 1861, we find the following documents referring to this arbitration:
(a) The Rev. Augustus Clissold to Dr. Spurgin, Chairman of the Swedenborg Society.
"My dear Dr. Spurgin,
"Mr. Philp called here on Saturday evening according to appointment, but without Mr. White. He, however, brought a letter from Mr. White pledging himself to my decision.
"I read the decision in the presence of Mr. Philp; who acknowledged it to be perfectly satisfactory, and took care to state in a written document that I had come to that decision solely with a view to prevent further litigation, and not on the ground of any claims whatever of Mr. White.
"Indeed with the exception of half a year's Salary, which a Court of Law might have awarded him, I place the rest of the payment recommended solely to the account of finally obtaining peace, and securing the Society from the enormous Scandal which would otherwise have been created in the minds of the public both against the Society and the New Church even though the Society had been successful in every action, as I believe it would be. I will forward to the Committee the decision communicated to Mr. Philp, and have only to repeat that you may put my name down for ,100 towards the expenses in Mr. White's Case. This will reduce the sum to be provided by voluntary subscriptions to L262; and I cannot help thinking that the payment of this sum may justly be considered as rather a cheap way of avoiding the ruinous effects arising from a series of successes in Courts of Law, especially as the Society have already gained all they want, and can well dispense with barren victories.
"Mr. Philp thinks it will be better to let the whole affair now die away, rather than terminate it formally in a Court of Law, as he says that all chance of Mr. Wilkinson [White?] reviving the contest is hopeless, his friends having come to a decision to take part with the Committee, if he should attempt it, of which, however, there is no prospect.
"An opportunity has been afforded severely to punish Mr. White by declining to be liberal on this occasion, as I believe he is greatly in debt. There commendation, however, I have ventured to make is founded rather upon Mercy than Justice; as I cannot but think that all will be willing to admit, that having by the Divine Mercy of the Lord been enabled to overcome their opponents, they best shew their gratitude for this mercy by shewing a like mercy to others....
"You will perceive from this letter the motives by which I have been actuated in coming to the present decision, and if I mistake not, they will meet with your cordial concurrence.
"I beg most heartily to congratulate yourself, the Committee, and the Society at large on the final attainment of peace, &c.
"AUGUSTUS CLISSOLD. "Stoke Newington, July 1, 1861."
(b) The Decision of the Rev. A. Clissold in accordance with the proposition that the Case of Mr. White should be left to his Arbitration.
"In the Action of White v. Spurgin said to be impending, Mr. White in a Letter to me dated June 25, 1861, lays his damages at L1000.
"In another part of his letter he says that he is willing for various reasons to make a sacrifice, and that he will be satisfied with L600.
"In this L600 he includes a repayment to him of L200, which, he says, are the costs of his action in the case of White v. Bayley. The repayment of these costs he claims on the ground of the Agreement that all law proceedings shall cease on the condition of each party paging their own costs.
"As this interpretation of the Agreement was not originally contemplated by either party, Mr. White must pay his own costs, and the L200 which he has had to pay for costs must be deducted, thus leaving the amount at L400.
"I cannot admit that Mr. White has any claims whatever upon the Society for any portion of this amount, but as this is an amicable settlement, I recommend this sum to be paid to him solely with a view to pence and to prevent further litigation.
"The manner of payment recommended is the following:
"As it is just possible that a Court of Law might have awarded to Mr. White half a year's salary, I would recommend that this amount, viz. L37 10 be paid to him from out of the Society's Funds, and that the remaining amount, viz. L362 10 be paid out of voluntary subscriptions to be raised for that purpose and for which I offer myself as Guarantee.
"The whole to be paid over to Mr. White as soon as I have a letter from Mr. Philp stating that all other law proceedings referred to in the agreement are finally settled.
"AUGUSTUS CLISSOLD.
"Stoke Newington, June 29, 1561."
(c) Mr. White to Mr. Clissold.
"29 Albert Street, Regent's Park, N.W. 29th June, 1861.
"My dear Sir,
My claims against the Swedenborg Society having by mutual consent been referred to you for arbitration I will abide the result as binding on me, and as a final settlement of my Claims, &c.
"WM. WHITE.
"The Rev, Augustus Clissold, M. A.
"Stoke Newington."
In conclusion we have to state that a Special General Meeting of the Members of the Society was held at the London Coffee House, Ludgate Hill, on Tuesday, May 28, 1861, at which 160 Members were present, and where a new code of Rules for the Society, of which due notice had been given in the Circular concerning the Meeting, was adopted for the better protection of the Society, and where the following resolution was passed.
"Resolved--That this Meeting expresses its decided approbation of the resolution of the Committee, in preserving the Society from those changes in its character and objects which have lately been attempted, and its full determination to support the Committee in such measures as in a spirit of kindness and forbearance they may adopt, with a view to maintain the Society in its great use of disseminating the writings of Swedenborg, and such works only as, in their judgment, may directly promote, or not interfere with, their acceptance among mankind."
This resolution, which was moved by the Rev. Augustus Clissold, was seconded by Mr. Wm. Pickstone, supported by the Rev. Woodville Woodman, and carried nemine contradicente.
Such was Mr. White's connection with spiritism, and such were his antecedents in 1860 and 1861 to the publication of his works on Swedenborg in 1867 and 1568. That the events of 1860 and 1861 determined the spirit in which he interpreted the character and the writings of Swedenborg in 1867 is shown in Chapter XXXVI of his "Life", entitled "Progress of Swedenborgianism," every word of which breathes a spirit of hostility and resentment against the body of New Churchmen who in 1860 and 1561 thwarted his design upon the Swedenborg Society. This hostility against the organized New Church warped also his whole presentation of the intellectual and moral character of Swedenborg; and it likewise induced him to stultify himself by blackening everything that he had said in 1856 in favour of Swedenborg's character and writings. In presenting his sullied image of Swedenborg in 1867, Mr. White was a diligent collector of the facts respecting his life, and he also quoted at great length from his writings; yet behind every favourable remark respecting his life and writings there lurk a slur and a sneer; so that Mr. White may be compared to an artist who with one hand endeavours with considerable skill to present the genuine features of a man, but with the other sullies, distorts, and blackens these very features.
Such then is the nature of Mr. White's "Life of Swedenborg" published in 1867, when examined in the light of the life which he published in 1856, and also in the light of his transactions with the Swedenborg Society in 1860 and 1561.
X.
MR. WHITE'S DOCUMENTS.
On making a thorough analysis of the edition of Mr. White's "Life of Swedenborg" of 1867, for the purposes of the present Note, we met there with some additional documents which in the edition of 1868 from which we collected Document 294, were either curtailed, or omitted. These omissions we herewith supply:
(1.) Bishop Swedberg to Charles XII.*
* See edition of 1867, Vol. I, p. 30.
"Stockholm, May 22, 1709.
"As I am minded to allow my son Emanuel Swedberg to travel in foreign lands for the sake of his studies, which he has hitherto diligently pursued at Upsal; so I make my most humble prayer to Your Royal Majesty for permission.
"JESPER SWEDBERG."
Document 294, B (p. 743), which we published in an abbreviated form from Mr. White's second edition, in his first edition of 1867 (I, p. 36) is as follows:
(2.) Bishop Swedberg to the King.
"Brunsbo, October 21, 114.
"Most Mighty King, Most Gracious Lord,
".... I also have a son, Emanuel Swedberg, who after having graduated at Upsal, has been for four years pursuing his studies in England, Holland, and France, and is now staying, I believe, at Rostock or Greifswalde. In mathematics and mechanics he may, with God's help, be useful to Your Majesty, either at the Academy, or elsewhere.
"For the rest, I will most humbly assure you, that by the grace of God, I shall so do my duty in proposing people for appointments, that you shall have no reason to regret your gracious assent.
JESPER SWEDBERG."
Document 294, D (p. 744), in an unabridged form is as follows (edition of 1867, I, p. 42).
(3.) Bishop Swedberg to Lord Lieutenant Feif [not Pfiff].
"Brunsbo, July 12, 1715.
"May it please Your Excellency,
"My son Emanuel, after five years' foreign travel, has at length returned home. I hope he may be found available for some Academy. He is accomplished in Oriental languages, as well as European, but especially he is an adept in poetry and mathematics. He intends to build himself an Observatory on the Kinnekulle, which is not far from Skara, where he will try to find out a method for ascertaining the longitude at sea. For some means, by which this may be done, many potentates have offered large sums of money to the discoverer. If there should be an opening at an Academy here in Sweden, will your Excellency be so kind as advance him to fill it? With God's help, he will honour his place.
"JESPER SWEDBERG."
The text of Document 294, E (p. 795j), differs in the two editions in several important particulars. The text in the edition of 1567, (I, p. 43), is as follows:
(4.) Bishop Swedberg to the King.
"Brunsbo, February 9, 1715.
"Most Mighty King, Most Gracious Lord.
"It has pleased God to allot me seven children, for whose well-being I am bound to care. Of these, three are sons,--the eldest seeks to render himself completely accomplished for the service of Your Royal Majesty and our fatherland, by courses of study,--the second (Eliezer) does so likewise in business connected with mining, and the third (Jesper) also, by service for two years in Your Majesty's army in Pomerania, but now by a voyage to the far Indies, or as it is called, New Sweden. The daughters have all entered into matrimony with honourable persons; two are married to men in the priestly estate; one (Anna) to the Librarian of Your Majesty's Academy in Upsal, Eric Benzelius, and the other (Catharina) to a pastor, here in West Gothland, Jonas Unge of the other two, one (Margaretha) is married to Lundstedt, the Master of the Horse in Your Majesty's Life Guards, and the other (Hedwig) to Lars Benzelstjerna, the Master of the Mines in East and West Bergslagen.
"For these I make bold in all humility to solicit, that it may please Your Royal Majesty to grant me the favour, that others of my brothers in office have experienced: namely, to promote to the rank and place of nobles my afore-named sons and my two last-named sons-in-law, the Master of the Horse, Lundstedt and the Master of the Mines, Benzelstjerna. It will be an encouragement to them still further, in humble submission, to make themselves worthy of the grace of Your Royal Majesty, and the service of their country, and to me, Your Majesty's loyal subject, your favour will be peculiarly agreeable.
"JESPER SWEDBERG."
In Sweden it has been the rule for the sons and daughters of distinguished Bishops to be ennobled. To this custom, which forms the ground of Bishop Swedberg's application, reference is made in the passage which we have italicized. This passage, among some others of less importance, Mr. White omitted in his edition of 1868.
The complete text of Document 294, F (Vol. I, p. 47), is as follows:
(5.) Bishop Swedberg to the King.
"Wennersborg, April 23, 1716.
"Most Mighty King, Most Gracious Lord.
"I am desirous to help my children forward as far as I can in Your Royal Majesty's service. My son Emanuel is of Polhem's mind, and has travelled in foreign parts for four years, and has given proofs of his powers in print (see the Ddalus Hyperboreus), which are in the Crown-Prince's [?] hands.
My next son, Eliezer, is engaged in mining, and my third, Jesper, is a sailor, and is now in the Indies. My son-in-law, Lars Benzelsjerna, is a master of the mines, and Andreas Lundstedt, another, is Master of the Horse in Your Majesty's Life Guards. These, I beseech most humbly, that Your Royal Majesty may, of your grace, be pleased to exalt to the rank and privilege of Nobles, whereby they will be greatly encouraged in Your Majesty's service.
"JESPER SWEDBERG."
(6.) Bishop Swedberg to the King.*
* Edition of 1867, Vol. I, p. 53.
"Brunsbo, November 2, 1717.
"A humble expression of gratitude, and petition for future favours.
"My son, Emanuel Swedberg, for whose advancement to an honourable office I give humblest thanks, has sent in a humble petition that I, together with Madame Maria Christiana Bonde (wife of the General), have leave and opportunity given to establish a copper-mine here, in West Gothland, on the General's lady's estate of Fremstad, in the district of Skaraborg, and the parish of Vista. The Secretary Cederholm has knowledge of the circumstances.
"JESPER SWEDBERG."
NOTE 309.
DR. J. F. IMMANUEL TAFEL.
Dr. J. F. Immanuel Tafel, whose name has been frequently mentioned in these pages in connection with the Documents concerning Swedenborg, the Latin reprints of his theological writings, and the publication of his MSS., was born on Feb. 17, 1796, at Sulzbach in Würtemberg, where his father was a clergyman. When seventeen years old he became acquainted with the doctrines of the New Church, and soon he was so fully imbued with their truth, that he resolved to abandon the profession of the Lam, which he had embraced, in order to study theology at Tübingen, and devote himself to the translation and spread of the writings of the New Church. After finishing his course at the University in 1821, he issued in the same year, a prospectus for the printing of the writings of Swedenborg, and a short time afterwards published the "Four Leading Doctrines" (Document 313, nos. 116-119) and the "Last Judgment" (Do., no. 105), which were accompanied by an elaborate preface wherein the claims of the writings of Swedenborg to the attention of Christendom were set forth.
Meanwhile he received the appointment of Librarian in the University of Tübingen, and began the publication in German of the "Apocalypse Revealed" (Do., no. 127), but in 1825 he was prohibited by the King from continuing the publication of Swedenborg's writings. This prohibition, however, was rescinded in 188, and from that time he laboured incessantly till the hour of his death in the propagation and defence of the writings of the New Church. The "Apocalypse Revealed" was quickly finished; and in due time it was succeeded by German translations of the "Divine Love and Wisdom" (Do., no. 124), the "Divine Providence" (Do., no. 126), Vol. I of "Conjugial Love" (Do., no. 135), Vols. I-III of the Arcana Coelestia (Do., no. 94), the "Summary Exposition of the Psalms and Prophets" (Do., no. 109), "Heaven and Hell" (Do. no. 101), "Brief Exposition," &.c. (Do., no. 139), the "True Christian Religion'" (Do., no. 115); the "New Jerusalem," &c. (Do., no. 103).
In the original Latin he reprinted the following theological works of Swedenborg: (1.) Arcana Coelestia, (2.) De Divino Amore et de Divina Sapientia, (3.) De Divina Providentia, (4.) Vera Christiana Religio, (5.) Summaria expositio doctrin Nov Ecclesi, (6.) De Clo et Inferno, (7.) De Commercio anim et corporis, (8.) Continuatio de Ultimo Judicio, &c.
Of the works belonging to Swedenborg's scientific period he reprinted the following: Select L. Anni Senec, &c. (Document 313, no. 1), Ludus Heliconius, &c., (Do., nos. 3, 5, 6, 34), Camena Borea (Do., no. 4), Jesperi Swedbergii Canticum Svecicum, &c. (Do., no. 2).
From the MSS. of Swedenborg he published the following works: Diarium Spirituale--this work embraces the following numbers in Document 313, viz. nos. 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 8 and B, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 131, 132, 134, 137, and 138; Adversaria in Libros Veteris Testamenti--this embraces the following numbers, viz. nos. 80, 82, 84; Dicta Probantia (Documents 313, no. 144); Itinerarium (Do., nos. 44, 49), Regnum Animale (Do., nos. 67, 69, 73), Apocalypsis Explicata, 3 vols., incomplete (Do., no. 106), Index Biblicus--under this title he printed the beginning of the following numbers, viz. nos. 83, 86, 90, 91, 92.
In defence of Swedenborg and the doctrines of the New Church he wrote: (1) Swedenborg und seine Gegner (Swedenborg and his Opponents), 4 Vols.; (2) Vergleichende Darstellung der Lehrgegenstze der Katholiken und Protestanten (Symbolism, or a comparative presentation of the doctrines of Catholicism and Protestantism, and of the New Church), pp. 556;
(3) Swedenborg und der Abergauben, oder offenes Sendschreiben an Prof. Schleiden (Swedenborg and superstition, or an open Letter to Prof, Schleiden).
His philosophical writings are as: follows: (1) Geschichte und Kritik des Skepticismus und Irrationalismus (History and Criticism of Scepticism and Irrationalism), pp. 458; (2) Die Fundamental-philosphie in genetischer Entwickelund (Fundamental philosophy in its genetic development), Part I, pp. 564; (3) Die Hauptwahrheiten der Religion oder Stunden des Nachdenkens ber die letzten Grnde der Religionswahrheiten (The fundamental truths of religion, &c.), Part I, (4) Die Unsterblichkeit und Widererinnerungskraft der Seele (The immortality and power of recollection of the soul).
His contributions to the history of the New Church are as follows: (1) Sammlung von Urkunden, betreffend das Leben und den Charakter von E. Swedenborg (A Collection of Documents concerning the Life and Character of E. Swedenborg), 4 parts; (a) Zur Geschichte der Neuen Kirche (Materials for the History of the New Church.
In manuscript Dr. Im. Tafel left a "Life of Jesus," which was printed after his death, and also a ACourse of Lectures on Logic," which he had delivered in the University of Tübingen.
After the publication of his "Fundamentalphilosophie" in 1845, he was appointed by the King of Würtemberg Professor of Philosophy in the University of Tübingen. He died August 29, 1863, at Ragaz in Switzerland.
NOTE 310.
G. E. KLEMMING.
Gustav Edward Klemming, the learned editor of Swedenborg's "Diary for the years 1743 and 1744," which he published under the title of "Swedenborg's Drmmar" (Swedenborg's Dreams), was born in Stockholm in 1823. After passing through the University of Upsal in 1841, he was appointed in 1846 an assistant in the Royal Library, in Stockholm. In 1858 he became Vice-librarian, and in 1865 Librarian in chief. He is considered one of the profoundest connoisseurs of the ancient Swedish, and published many ancient texts in that language. He and Mr. Ahlstrand, the Librarian of these Documents, in collecting materials for the present work, concerning which see preface to Volume I.
Mr. Klemming has been instrumental in collecting the completest Swedenborg Library in existence. For years he has been endeavouring to procure for the Royal Library a copy of every edition of every work of Swedenborg that has been printed in the original, as well as in all the biographies and biographical notices which have appeared of Swedenborg. We understand that he is engaged on a bibliographical work which will give a full account of all the editions of every one of Swedenborg's works. Our recollections of Mr. Klemming and of his friendly help during our stay in Stockholm from 1868-1870 will never fade from our memory. He remains there as the librarian par excellence who is perfected wedded to the use, the work of his office.