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TESTIMONY OF COUNT A. J. VON HOPKEN. 47
valuable and classical work, both as to theory and practice,
printed at Leipsic in 1734 : if he had remained in his
office, his merits and talents would have entitled him to
the highest dignity ; but he preferred ease of mind, and
sought happiness in study. In Holland he began to
apply himself to anatomy, in which he made singular
discoveries, which are preserved somewhere in the Acta
Literaria. I imagine this science and his meditations
on the effects of the soul upon our curiously constructed
body, did, by degrees, lead him from the material to the
spiritual. He possessed a sound judgment upon all
occasions; he saw every thing clearly, and expressed
himself well on every subject. The most solid memorials,
and the best penned, at the diet of 1761 , on matters of
finance, were presented by him. In one of these he re
futed a large work in quarto on the same subject, quoted
all the corresponding passages of it, and all this in less
than one sheet. Of his method of teaching we see proofs
in all his writings which relate to, or are founded on the,
Arcana Calestia. He might, with or without reason,
which I do not indeed venture to determine, be accused of
having given a heated imagination too free play in his re
velations. But, for my own part, I have nothing on which
I could found this criticism. Whether, or no, our Lord,
in our times, grants to particular persons particular revela
tions ; what the nature of such revelations is ; and what is
the criterion for distinguishing the genuine from the false :
ofall this I have no solid grounds forjudging. The author
of the Monthly Review judges admirably in every other
respect except on matters of divinity ; and his testimony
on that head avails nothing with me. I once represented,
in rather a serious manner, to this venerable man, that I
thought he would do better not to mix his beautiful
writings with so many memorable relations,* or things
A considerable portion of Swedenborg’s writings consists of
what he calls memorabilia, or memorable relations " of things
heard and seen" in the spiritual world. (See above p. 19, where the
manner in which he sawthem is explained.) At the conclusion
of every article on doctrine, in his large work, entitled, The True
Christian Religion, or the Universal Theology ofthe New Church,
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