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46 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
a tender conscience is to be satisfied, I have not the spirit
requisite for this, and I am also bound to confess my want
of knowledge. All I could say by way of preliminary
on this subject, regards the person of the late Assessor
Swedenborg. I have not only known him these two-and
forty years, but also, some time since, daily frequented
his company. A man, who like me has lived long in
the world, and even in an extensive career of life, must
have had numerous opportunities of knowing men as to
their virtues or vices, their weakness or strength ; and in
consequence thereof, I do not recollect to have known
any man of more uniformly virtuous character than
Swedenborg ; always contented, never fretful or morose,
although throughout his life his soul was occupied with
sublime thoughts and speculations. He was a true philo
sopher, and lived like one ; he laboured diligently, and lived
frugally without sordidness ; he travelled continually, and
his travels cost him no more than if he had lived at home.
He was gifted with a most happy genius, and a fitness for
every science, which made him shine in all those which
he embraced. He was, without contradiction, the most
learned man in my country ; in his youth he was a great
poet. I have in my possession some remnants of his Latin
poetry, which Ovid would not have been ashamed to own.
His Latin in his middle age, was in an easy, elegant,
and ornamental style ; in his latter years it was equally
clear, but less elegant after he had turned his thoughts to
spiritual subjects. He was well acquainted with the
Hebrew and Greek ; an able and profound mathematician ;
a happy mechanic, of which he gave proof in Norway,
where, by an easy and simple method, he transported the
largest galleys over the high mountains and rocks to a
gulf where the Danish fleet was stationed. He was like
wise a natural philosopher, yet on the Cartesian principles.
He detested metaphysics as founded on fallacious ideas,
because they transcend our sphere, by means of which
theology has been drawn from its simplicity and become
artifical and corrupted. He was perfectly conversant with
mineralogy, having for a long time been Assessor in the
Mineral College, on which science he also published a
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