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50 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
country, has often made it my duty to give my opinion and counsel in delicate
and difficult matters ; but I do not recollect any one so delicate ever to have
been submitted to my judgment, as that which you have been pleased to pro-
pose to me. Such sentiments and persuasions as one person may entertain, do
not always suit others ; and what may appear to me probable, manifest, certain
and incontestible, may to others seem dark, incomprehensible, nay, even absurd.
Partly natural organization, partly education, partly professional studies, partly
prejudices, partly fear of abandoning received opinions, and other causes,
occasion a difference of ideas in men. To unite and settle them in tempo-
ral concerns is not hazardous ; but in spiritual matters, when a tender con-
science 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 v/ay of prelimi-
nary 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 uni-
formly virtuous character than Swedenborg; always contented, never fretful or
morose, although throughout his life his soul was occupied with subhme
thoughts and speculations. He was a true philosopher, and lived like one
;
he labored diligently, and lived frugally without sordidness ; he travelled con-
tinually, 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 jsvhich 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 I-atin 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 moimtains and rocks to a gulf
where the Danish fleet was stationed. He was likewise a natural philosopher,
yet on the Cartesian principles. He detested metaphysics as founded on falla-
cious ideas, because they transcend our sphere, by means of which theology
has been drawn from its simplicity and become artificial 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 valuable and clas-
sical 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 everything clearly,
and expressed himself well on every subject. The most solid memorials, and
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