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44 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
sides on his travels he is a mere solitary, and almost inaccessible, though in his
own country of a free and open behavior. He has nothing of the precisian in his
manner, nothing of melancholy in his temper, and nothing in the least border-
ing on the enthusiast in his conversation and vi^ritings."
Mr. H. makes similar remarks in his letter to the translator of The True Christian
Religion
:
—
*.*
The great Swedenborg (he says), was a man of uncommon humility. He
was of a catholic spirit, and loved all good men of every church, making at the
same time all candid allowance for the innocence of involuntary error. How-
ever self-denying in his own person, as to gratifications and indulgences, even
within the bounds of moderation ;
yet nothing severe, nothing of the precisian,
appeared in him, but on the contrary, an inward serenity and complacency of
mind, were manifest in the sweetness of his looks and outward demeanor. It
may reasonably be supposed, that I have weighed the character of our illustri-
ous author in the scale of my best judgment, from the personal knowledge I had
of him, from the best information I could procure respecting him, and from a
diligent perusal of his writings ; and according thereto, I have found him to be
the sound divine, the good man, the deep philosopher, the universal scholar,
and the polite gentleman; and I further believe, that he had a high degree of
illumination from the Spirit of God, was commissioned by him as an extraor-
dinary messenger to the world, and had communication with angels and the
spiritual worlds far beyond any since the time of the apostles. As such, I oflfer
his character to the world, solemnly declaring that, to the best of my know-
ledge, I am not herein led by any partiality or private views whatever, being
much dead to every worldly interest, and accounting myself as unworthy of
any higher character than that of a penitent sinner."
What Mr. Hartley here says of himself is unquestionably true : for he was well known
to many of the religious characters of that day as a man of the deepest piety, and he
was at this time [1781] very far advanced in years, and near the end of his earthly
career : to the testimony of such a man to the character of Swedenborg, what excep-
tion can be made 1*
V.
TESTIMONY OF DR. MESSITER,
RESPECTING
SWEDENBORG.
The "gentleman of a learned profession and of extensive intellectual abilities," men-
tioned by Mr. Hartley above, was the late Dr. Messiter, an eminent physician of that
time. What his opinion of Swedenborg, the result of personal acquaintance, was, ap-
* Mr. Hartley was the author of a volume of sermons, and of other works, inculcat-
ing the Christian life, as well as the translator of two of Swedenborg’s works, entitled
the Intercourse between the Soul and the Body, and the Heaven and Hell.
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