Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
256 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
nothing but nature, are afraid that the luminous works of
the greatest naturalist, and the sublimest theosophist, that
has yet existed, would give the last blow to their tottering
system. Others, having borrowed from him without ac
knowledging it, are apprehensive that if his works should
obtain more notice, their plagiaries would be detected.
The third class, enjoying a reputation founded on a false
opinion of their knowledge, but being unable to conceal
their incapacity from themselves, dread the appearance of
this polar star, because it would infallibly eclipse them,
and soon reduce them to their just estimation. I know
not from which of these motives it was that an anony
mous writer inserted, about two years ago, in the Courier
de l’Europe, a pretended notice respecting Swedenborg
and his writings, which was nothing but a tissue of wrong
dates, false titles, and palpable calumnies and contradic
tions it is thus that self-love, disfiguring, falsifying, and
obscuring everything, is the source of every evil, and the
scourge of the human race. The first labour, then, to be
undertaken to arrive at the truth is, to combat, to con
quer, and to chain down, this principle for ever. Then
the soul of man, recovering its liberty, and restored to
the light for which it was born, may roam at pleasure
through the whole of nature, and pursuing its flight, may
elevate itself even to that world which ignorant mortals
regard as imaginary, but which will always be, whatever
they may say, the vivifying sphere, and the true home
of the human mind.
"This, Gentlemen, is what I thought it my duty to
make public for the benefit of society, from a regard for
truth, and in gratitude to him to whom I am indebted
for the major part of the little that I know ; though, be
fore I met with his writings, I had sought for knowledge
amongst almost all the writers, ancient and modern, who
enjoyed any reputation for possessing it. I have the
honour to be, &c.,
" MARQUIS DE THOMÉ.
"Paris, Aug. 4, 1785."
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
