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52 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
ignorance makes a jest and derision. But he answered me, that this did not de-
pend on him ; that he was too old to sport with spiritual things, and too much concerned
for his eternal happiness to give in to such foolish notions, assuring me, on his hopes of
salvation, that no imagination produced in him his revelations, which were true, and
from what hehad heard and seen. This may be : the church cannot judge of mys-
teries, nor can I. The generaUty, when they are speaking of the theology of
Swedenborg, always dwell on his memorable relations, and think that everything
consists in these. In whatever he relates of the spiritual world, and the other
progressions in the angelic heaven, there appears, as I think, an analogy and
resemblance of the gradations which God has established in the world, and in
which no variations or exceptions are admitted ; insomuch, that Swedenborg
has taken the same road by which we proceed from the visible to the invisible,
from things known to things unknown, from several collected facts to one fun-
damental truth before unknown to us ; in like maimer as in arithmetic, we are
led from known numbers to those we seek. We have no other way of obtain-
ing knowledge. Few persons have judiciously read his works, which every-
where sparkle with genius ; if I meet with anything unusual or extraordinary,
and which might indicate a disordered understanding, I do not judge of it. We
read Plato with admiration ; but there is nothing to be met with in his works,
which, if related by another person, might not be deemed extravagant, incon-
ceivable, and absurd. But I grow too prolix. Sir, and you may be tired with
such a long and hastily written letter. This I have written with a view of satis-
fying in some manner your desire, and thus of proving the perfect esteem, with
which I have the honor to be. Sir, your obedient servant,
" H6PKEN.
*’ Schenninge, May 11, 1772."
*’ P. S. Your epitaph on Swedenborg is very beautiful, true, and v/orthy of the
subject"
Count Hdpken to General Tuxen.
letter ii.
" Sir,
" From your long silence, I concluded you had not been satisfied with my last,
containing my opinion on the late Assessor Swedenborg’s System of Divinity
;
and from your letter of March 8th, I perceive I. had some cause for mysuspicions.
In every science but divinity, a man may give his opinion positively, and, if it
were erroneous, endeavor to make others embrace it also ; for this does not de-
stroy the calm and quiet of the conscience. It is quite indifferent in the other
life, with regard to happiness, to believe with Ptolemy, that the earth rests in
the centre, and that the sun, with the other planets, revolves round it in twenty-
four hours; or with Copernicus, the opposite. But as soon as the question is
when his spiritual eyeswere open to see the objects in the spiritual world. The memo-
rable relations of Swedenborg will be found, by every serious mind, to contain lessons of
wisdom, concerning the spiritual states of men, of the greatest importance, which could
not be so effectuaU cnmniunicated in any other manner.
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