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TESTIMONY OF COUNT A. J. VON HÔPKEN. 45
man of eminent learning, he served for a considerable
period in the capacity of Secretary. He afterwards was,
for many years, Prime Minister of the kingdom ; which
station, in addition to his post as one of the sixteen
Senators, with whom, prior to the revolution in 1772,
the royal power in fact was vested, the king being merely
the president of that body, made him the second person
in the kingdom. He died on the 9th of March, 1790.
In the New Jerusalem Magazine, published in 1790 and
1791 , are five letters of this nobleman to General Tuxen,
in answer to some inquiries respecting Swedenborg made
by the latter. Count Hôpken’s letters exhibit much of
the wariness of an old politician ; yet while he even seems
to censure some parts of Swedenborg’s writings, his
anxiety to apologize for them clearly discovers what was
his real opinion.
Lettersfrom Senator Count Hôpken to General Tuxen.
LETTER I.
"SIR,
"My stay in the country, at a distance from the capital
and the great world, is the cause of my answering later
than I ought the letter of April 21st, with which you
have honoured me. The office with which I was invested
in my country, has often made it my duty to give my
opinion and counsel in delicate and difficult matters ; but
I do not recollect any one so delicate ever to have been
submitted to my judgment, as that which you have been
pleased to propose to me. Such sentiments and per
suasions as one person may entertain, do not always
suit others ; and what may appear to me probable,
manifest, certain and incontestible, may to others
seem dark, incomprehensible, nay, even absurd. Partly
natural organization, partly education, partly professional
studies, partly prejudices, partly fear of abandoning
received opinions, and other causes, occasion a difference
of ideas in men. To unite and settle them in temporal
concerns is not hazardous ; but in spiritual matters, when
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