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TESTIMONY OF THE QUEEN OF SWEDEN. 121
Behalfof the Doctrines of the New Christian Church,
&c.," p. 203,) might be written, and be equally amusing
and instructive, under the title of " The Credulity of
Unbelievers." Here is an accomplished princess, who
finds another person in possession of a secret which she is
quite sure was only known to herself and her deceased
brother: she knows that he did not obtain it from herself,
yet rather than believe that he obtained it from her
brother, she imagines the existence of a " talent” incom
parably more inexplicable !
The same observation (continues Mr. Noble, ) applies
to several other relaters of the story. One of these is
Baron de Grimm. He allows Swedenborg to have been
"a man distinguished not only by his probity, but also
by his knowledge and his intelligence." [ Un homme dis
tingué non seulement par sa probité, mais encore par
ses connaisances et ses lumières. ] Yet he, after giving
the above anecdote, gives this contradiction-in-terms as
hisjudgment on it : "This fact is confirmed by authorities
so respectable, that it is impossible to deny it; but the
question is, how to believe it !" [ Ce fait est confirmé
par des autorités si respectables qu’il est impossible de
le nier; mais le moyen d’y croire ! ]* But Baron de
Grimm was professedly a determined atheist, and there
fore could not believe any fact, however evidenced, which
supposes, as real, the existence of man after death.
Another relater of the anecdote is not much less in
consistent. This is Captain Charles Leonard de Stahl
hammer, Knight of the Royal Order of the Sword.
Some editions of the story affirm, that what Swedenborg
repeated to the queen were the contents of a letter which
she had received from her brother : and as the main facts
were undeniable, some of Swedenborg’s enemies, so late
as 1788, endeavoured to account for them by the im
probable tale, that Count Hôpken had intercepted and
opened the letter before the queen received it, and that he
• See Memoirs Hist. Lit. et Anecdotiques, tirés de la Corres
pondence addressée au Duc de Saxe Gotha par le Baron de Grimm.
Tom. iii. p. 56. Ed. Lond. 1813.
G
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