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18 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
but eagerly sought after, and equally regarded with the
acquisition of riches.*
These last works of Swedenborg’s, as far as I have
been able to judge of them from a slight inspection, con
firm the idea I had previously formed of his system. He
explains in them, according to the laws of the system
that he had adopted, both things visible and invisible :
* We have here, indeed, a rare instance of that moderation
and contentedness of mind by which Swedenborg was so eminently
distinguished, and which was so truly in accord with his spiritual
character. In the English version of this Eulogium heretofore
published, he is made to desire that the favour he quested might
be granted without derogation either of title or rank : but this is a
strange oversight indeed of the translator : for both the French
copies that of Pernetti, from which the former English version
was made, as well as that which we have chiefly followed-here
agree in the sense which is given above; both state that he re
quested that the favour might be granted him " sans amélioration
de rang ni de titre." Swedenborg had now held an office in the
government thirty-one years : and no doubt it is customary in that
country, as in this, to reward a faithful public servant, on his
retirement, with a pension proportioned to the length and value of
his services, and to raise him to a higher degree of rank or title.
It is elsewhere stated, that such an offer was actually made to
Swedenborg on this occasion : it was proposed to raise him from
the first rank of nobility to the second, and thus to confer on him
the title of Baron ; and, most probably, this would have been
accompanied with an addition to his former income, to enable him
to support his new dignity in a suitable manner : but he, as a man
for whom neither wealth nor power had any attractions, declined
the title altogether, and requested that only half of his former
income-just as much as was sufficient to keep him from want,
and to enable him to publishthe works onwhich he was engaged
might be continued to him. By the way, this transaction alone is
sufficient to evince how totally unfounded is the report which
has been propagated by his enemies in this country, that, a little
before this time, he went mad. If such was, in reality, his un
fortunate situation, would be sufficiently extraordinary that he
should still be permitted, in his own country, to assist, as usual,
in the deliberations ofthe House of Nobles : but that it should be
proposed, at such a time, to raise him to a higher rank of nobility,
and thus to add to his influence, would have been extraordinary
indeed. To think of such a thing, the king of Sweden must have
been mad himself. [ Editors. ]
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