who are destitute of the information requisite for forming a correct judgment on the case. We will consider the two principal.

The information here delivered by the Author divides itself into two general parts: first, the account of his own life and general character; secondly, his call by the Lord to a holy office, and the consequent opening of the sight of his spirit, and endowment with the privilege of conversing with spirits and angles. We will see how both are supported by the testimony of others.

1. A confirmation of all the statements contained in the first part of the above letter, is given by the Rev. Nicholas Collin, of Phildelphia. This gentleman does not profess the sentiments of Swedenborg: but in the year 1801, when, in consequence of the adoption of those sentiments by many in America, the character and life of Swedenborg had there become the subjects, as he states, of "frequent and sedulous inquiries," he published the above letter of his illustrious countryman, with a comment of his own, in the Philadelphia Gazette "of Aug. 5th, 8th, and 10th. It was reprinted in "the New Jerusalem Church Repository," published at Philadelphia in 1817, at which time Mr C. was still peforming the duties of Pastor of the Swedish Church in that city. His testimony therefore is probably that of a still living witness. Mr Collin was well qualified to give authentic information, having, when a very young man, lived three years at Stockholm, when "Swedenborg was a great object of public attention in that metropolis, and his extraordinary character was a frequent topic of discussion. Not seldom he appeared in public, and mixed in private societies; therefore sufficient opportunities were given to make observations on him." I extract the sentences containing the heads of Mr C.'s comment, in confirmation of some of which he goes into several details. His family connexions were such as he relates, and well known in Sweden: some of them by myself personally. The mention of his father being, though honorable, modestly short, I shall enlarge upon it. This Jesper Swedberg was well qualified for one of the principal bishopricks in Sweden, by his piety, learning, integrity, benevolence, and all other virtues."_" Swedenborg is silent on the merits of his youth, which were great."-" The office of Counsellor in the Metallic College was conferred on him by King Charles as a reward for knowledge acquired by the labors of youth, and a means of making it very beneficial to the nation: that Board having inspection over the mines and metallic works, so important in that country; and being a constitutional department of the government."-" Swedenborg asserts with truth, that he was in favor with the royal family, and generally respected by the first classes. This was due to his learning and excellence of character."- -Swedenborg states properly his rank of nobility. He had the common degree, and was not, as many style him, a Baron; which title denotes the second class of noblemen; the first among the three classes being counts." (This is unquestionably a just account of his rank: but it may be observed, that, though he had not a title, his degree was the same as in England carries the title of Baron, or Lord; for it gave him a seat in the House of Nobles, or of Peers, in the Diet or Par

III. The common cry, re-echoed from mouth to mouth and retailed from pen to pen, is, that he was mad;

liament of his country. The higher rank, which, he states in his letter, was offered him on his retirement from office, was, no doubt, that of Baron; which in Sweden is equivalent to our Earl.)

Mr Collin adds an account of an interview which he once had with Swedenborg: it contains nothing very remarkable, but enough to evince that his behaviour on intimacy by no means tended to diminish the respect which his reputation had excited. "In the sum

mer of 1766," says Mr C., "I waited on him at his house; introducing myself with an apology for the freedom I took.-He received me very kindly.-We conversed for near three hours: principally on the nature of human souls, and their states in the invisible world; discussing the principal theories of psychology, by various authors; among them the celebrated Dr Wallerius, late Professor of Natural Theology at Upsal. He asserted positively, as he often does in his works, that he had intercourse with spirits of deceased persons.""We parted," says Mr C., "with mutual satisfaction."

The next testimony that I shall offer is from a public document of the greatest authority. It is no other than an oration delivered in the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, on occasion of Swedenborg's death, by the Chevalier de Sandel, Superintendant of the Mines, and Knight of the Order of the Polar Star, at a meeting of the Academy held in the Great Hall of the House of Nobles, Oct. 7th, 1772. The circumstance of the delivery of such a discourse, is alone a conclusive proof of the high estimation in which the subject of it was held. If the most learned of those who have written against him had read the whole of this production, they would have perhaps been less hasty in pronouncing an unfavorable judgment. As Asmus of Wandsbeck says, (in his works printed at Breslaw) of one of his censurers who wrote under the name of Polyhistor, "they would have suspended their opinion concerning him, had they known that SwedenBut I must content borg possessed all their learning in his cradle." myself with only extracting a few passages.

"Permit me," says the Orator to the noblemen and gentlemen around him, "to entertain you this day, not upon a subject which, being of an indifferent nature, might be uninteresting and might even fatigue your attention; but on a man illustrious for his virtues, and celebrated for the extent of his knowledge of every kind, whom you well knew and greatly loved, and who was one of the oldest members of this Academy. By these traits, you will immediately recognise the late M. Emanuel de Swebenborg Assessor of the Royal College of Mines. The respect that we entertained for this great man, and the affection that we bore him, assure me of the pleasure and satisfaction that you will feel in hearing him spoken of: happy shall I deem myself, if I in any degree fulfil the desire you entertain, to behold a man so dear to your hearts recalled to your minds in a manner worthy of his glorious memory. The task is difficult. The most skilful painter finds not easy to present to the eye the exact features of certain persons: how far less easy is it to sketch and exhibit to the mental eye a genius vast, sublime, and laborious; who never rested, and never was wearied in his application even to

an aspersion which, notwithstanding some totally false and merely calumnious tales have from time to time been fabricated to support it, literally rests upon no founda

the most profound and intricate sciences; who during many years was engaged in useful efforts to unveil the mysteries of nature, opened a new way to arrive at certain sciences, and finally endeavored to penetrate into the sanctuary of the greatest secrets, without ever losing sight of sound morality and the fear of the Supreme Being; and who retained all the strength of his genius to the last, notwithstanding that decay of the material covering of the soul which others experience at the close of a career so long, and to which so few attain: but who, having allowed his ideas free range, and having carried them as far as they could go, has given occasion to form different opinions respecting him; according to the different manner in which the same object is looked at by different persons, and the point of view from which they consider it."

"Before we can penetrate the thoughts, and discover the character, of persons with whom we are in company, we usually observe at first a watchful and cautious reserve. But to be relieved from the necessity of observing this restraint in following Swedenborg, represent to yourselves the following happy assemblage of qualities: an excellent memory, a penetrating understanding, a quick conception, and the soundest judgment, united to an insatiable desire for making the most certain attainments in Philosophy, in almost all branches of the Mathematics, in Natural History, in Chemistry, in Anatomy, and finally in Theology; not to mention the Oriental and European languages, in which he was well versed. Observe in him well formed habits acting in concert with the dictates of reason, especially in regard to the admirable order in which he always arranged his ideas. Represent to yourselves the best heart and the best character; which are evidenced by the rules he laid down for the government of his own thoughts and conduct, as I have found them noted in various parts of his manuscripts. They are as follows: 1. To read often, and to meditate well upon, the Word of God. 2. To be always resigned and contented under the various dispensations of Providence. 3. To observe always a propriety of behaviour, and to keep the conscience clear and void of offence. 4. To obey what is ordained; to discharge with fidelity the duties of one's employment; and to do everything that depends on one's self; to be useful to all, without exception.'-Behold here the picture of Swedenborg's inward state of mind! None but such as are blinded by prejudice can either think or say that it is not a true likeness, or can fail to recognise in it the man himself."

"He lived single, but he was never dull. He enjoyed such excellent health, that he scarcely ever experienced the least indisposition. Always filled with an inward content, he under all circumstances possessed his soul in peace; and he led a life in the highest degree happy, till the moment that nature demanded her rights." "He possessed a so judgment upon all occasions: he saw everything clearly, ad expressed himself well on every subject. The most suid memorials, and the best penned, at the Diet of 1761, on matters of finance, were presented by him."-Count Hopkins.

tion whatever, but that on which the same imputation was thrown against an infinitely greater character. "He hath a devil and is mad: why hear ye him?"* Such was the salutation with which the Divine Truth, in person, was assailed, when "he came unto his own, and his own received him not." The Lord Jesus Christ himself was reproached as insane by the leaders of the professing church of that day: and even his own kindred according to the flesh had so little conception of his true character, that when he began to display it by mighty words and works, "they said, He is beside himself. And they went forth to lay hold on him," for the purpose of putting him under restraint, as a person of disordered mind. So little capable, when in the darkness of its sensual perceptions, is the human mind, of distinguishing the most exalted wisdom from insanity! No wonder then that the proclaimer of genuine truth now should be derided with similar reproaches. "The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord; if they call the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household!" Such were the prophetic warnings by which the Lord prepared his disciples for the treatment they were to expect: and the experience of distant ages has proved their truth. When the Apostle pleaded the cause of Christianity before Agrippa and Festus, the Roman governor replied with the exclamation, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad:" and so, in our times, a man who has been favored with a degree of illumination as much superior to that of modern Christians in general as was the divine knowledge of Paul to the darkness which then overspread both Jews and Gentiles, is assailed with the same cry, and, while his attainments in science are admitted, it is pretended that his studies had ruined his faculties. By the Candid and Reflecting, a sufficient answer to this charge will be found in his writings, which, though a period of twentytwo years intervened between the publication of the first of his theological works and the last, exhibit the most perfect consistency of sentiment throughout, while they are all written with a regard to the most orderly and methodicarrangement, and * John x. 20. + Mark iii. 21. Matt. x. 24, 25. Acts xxvi. 24.

display in their author the most acute powers of reason and extraordinary strength of memory; which last faculty is evinced by the numerous references to other parts of his works which abound in them all. These, certainly, are qualities which do not usually attend the ebullitions of insanity. Indeed, it is impossible to pretend to find in the composition and manner of Swedenborg's writings any tokens of derangement: even adversaries admit that they exhibit plain marks of a very superior mind: and they only pronounce him mad, because his works contain such statements as they might naturally be expected to contain, should his claims to acceptance, as a heaven commissioned teacher, be true.

I had here, however, almost forgotten the Rev. Mr Beaumont; for he, willing to be thought a more profound critic than any who had gone before him, objects to the manner, as well as the matter, of Swedenborg's writings. He complains that there is in them "an almost endless tautology and repetition either of expression or meaning," which, he adds, "is to me another plain indication of the author's disordered intellects." But Mr B. is determined to see nothing in the writings of the Author, or at least to produce nothing from them, in which he cannot find a pretence for censure: and this charge of tautology is of a piece with all the rest. The adversaries of Swedenborg in general only look into his works for such things as may serve to give a wrong impression. These they set forth as specimens of the whole, for the purpose of deterring others from examining for themselves; carefully suppressing those excellent and truly sublime and heavenly sentiments, upon numerous subjects of the first importance, which even they cannot help feeling, and half acknowledging that those writings contain. Thus, respecting some sentiments of our author, which Mr B. cannot deny to be excellent, he has these remarks: "What the Baron says respecting truth and good, and especially what he says respecting faith and charity, [these are fundamental things, by the by,] as also his opinion respecting man's free-will and predestination, accords in general with my sentiments, and may perhaps be read with some advantage."* We here

* Pp. 7, 8.