During his whole administration he added the weight of scrupulous integrity to his enlightened policy and openly declared himself the enemy of all secret intrigues and underhand dealings, which he regarded as unworthy means to attain an end.Neither did the writer of that article understand the Assessor Swedenborg.The only weakness of that essentially honest man was a belief in the apparition of spirits; but I knew him for many years, and I can affirm that he was as fully convinced that he met and talked with spirits as I am that I am writing at this moment.As a citizen and as a friend his integrity was absolute; he abhorred deception and led the most exemplary of lives.The version which the Chevalier Baylon gave of these facts is, therefore, entirely without justification; the visit stated to have been made to Swedenborg in the night-time by Count H---- and Count T---- is hereby contradicted.In conclusion, the writer of the letter may rest assured that I am not a follower of Swedenborg.The love of truth alone impels me to give this faithful account of a fact which has been so often stated with details that are entirely false.Icertify to the truth of what I have written by adding my signature.
Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer.
"The proofs which Swedenborg gave of his mission to the royal families of Sweden and Prussia were no doubt the foundation of the belief in his doctrines which is prevalent at the two courts," said Monsieur Becker, putting the gazette into the drawer."However," he continued, "I shall not tell you all the facts of his visible and material life;indeed his habits prevented them from being fully known.He lived a hidden life; not seeking either riches or fame.He was even noted for a sort of repugnance to ****** proselytes; he opened his mind to few persons, and never showed his external powers of second-sight to any who were not eminent in faith, wisdom, and love.He could recognize at a glance the state of the soul of every person who approached him, and those whom he desired to reach with his inward language he converted into Seers.After the year 1745, his disciples never saw him do a single thing from any human motive.One man alone, a Swedish priest, named Mathesius, set afloat a story that he went mad in London in 1744.But a eulogium on Swedenborg prepared with minute care as to all the known events of his life, was pronounced after his death in 1772on behalf of the Royal Academy of Sciences in the Hall of the Nobles at Stockholm, by Monsieur Sandels, counsellor of the Board of Mines.Adeclaration made before the Lord Mayor of London gives the details of his last illness and death, in which he received the ministrations of Monsieur Ferelius a Swedish priest of the highest standing, and pastor of the Swedish Church in London, Mathesius being his assistant.All persons present attested that so far from denying the value of his writings Swedenborg firmly asserted their truth.'In one hundred years,' Monsieur Ferelius quotes him as saying, 'my doctrine will guide the CHURCH.' He predicted the day and hour of his death.On that day, Sunday, March 29, 1772, hearing the clock strike, he asked what time it was.'Five o'clock' was the answer.'It is well,' he answered;'thank you, God bless you.' Ten minutes later he tranquilly departed, breathing a gentle sigh.Simplicity, moderation, and solitude were the features of his life.When he had finished writing any of his books he sailed either for London or for Holland, where he published them, and never spoke of them again.He published in this way twenty-seven different treatises, all written, he said, from the dictation of Angels.Be it true or false, few men have been strong enough to endure the flames of oral illumination.
"There they all are," said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a second shelf on which were some sixty volumes."The treatises on which the Divine Spirit casts its most vivid gleams are seven in number, namely:
'Heaven and Hell'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence';'The Apocalypse Revealed'; 'Conjugial Love and its Chaste Delights';'The True Christian Religion'; and 'An Exposition of the Internal Sense.' Swedenborg's explanation of the Apocalypse begins with these words," said Monsieur Becker, taking down and opening the volume nearest to him: "'Herein I have written nothing of mine own; I speak as I am bidden by the Lord, who said, through the same angel, to John:
"Thou shalt not seal the sayings of this Prophecy."' (Revelation xxii.
10.)
"My dear Monsieur Wilfrid," said the old man, looking at his guest, "Ioften tremble in every limb as I read, during the long winter evenings the awe-inspiring works in which this man declares with perfect artlessness the wonders that are revealed to him.'I have seen,' he says, 'Heaven and the Angels.The spiritual man sees his spiritual fellows far better than the terrestrial man sees the men of earth.In describing the wonders of heaven and beneath the heavens I obey the Lord's command.Others have the right to believe me or not as they choose.I cannot put them into the state in which God has put me; it is not in my power to enable them to converse with Angels, nor to work miracles within their understanding; they alone can be the instrument of their rise to angelic intercourse.It is now twenty-eight years since I have lived in the Spiritual world with angels, and on earth with men; for it pleased God to open the eyes of my Spirit as he did that of Paul, and of Daniel and Elisha.'
