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ANECDOTES COLLECTED BY MR. PROVO. 77
XI.
ANECDOTES OF SWEDENBORG
WHEN IN LONDON,
COLLECTED BY MR. PROVO.*
May 2, 1757, Mr. Provo called on Mr. Bergstron:), who keeps the King’s Arms Tavern,
in Wellclose-square : who, in a conversation of an hour’s length, related to him as fol-
lows :
—
" I was personally acquainted with Assessor Swedenborg : he frequently
called on me, and once lived ten weeks together with me in this house ; during
which time I observed nothing in him but what was very reasonable and be-
spoke the gentleman. He at that time breakfasted on coffee, ate moderately at
dinner, and drank one or two glasses of wine after it, but never more. In the
afternoon he drank tea, but never ate any supper. He usually walked out after
breakfast, generally dressed neatly in velvet, and made a good appearance. He
was mostly reserved, but complaisant, to others. He has told me that very few
were given to see the things that he did, and that he often saw many extraor-
dinary things. Mr. Springer once asked him, when at dinner here, about the
state of a person who was the occasion of Mr. Springer’s being obliged to leave
Sweden, and who was deceased; to which he answered that it was very bad,
and that he hoped his would be better. A secretary of Baron Nolken, who was
present, put an impertment question to him of a similar kind, which he refused
to answer, observing, that he never answered such questions as originated in
ill-will or malice. He commonly retired to his chamber in the evening, and
once I heard some noise from that part, and went to speak to him about it ; and as
he seemed rejoiced, I asked him the occasion ; when he told me that he had seen
some extraordinary things w^hich pleased him. He told me the story about the
qileen of Sweden’s [Ulrica’s] brother: she had secreily burnt a letter of his to
her, sent a short time before a battle in which he was killed, and she wanted to
know some other particulars relative to the contents : Swedenborg, some days
after her application to him, returned, and told her that her brother was offend-
* These Anecdotes were inserted in the Intellectual Repository for January, 1836, by
the Rev. S. Noble, who, in a letter to the Editors of that work, gives the following ac-
count of them :
—
" Gentlemen,
" In my ’ Appeal in Behalf of the Boctritics of the New Church, ^c.,’ I have made
some use of the following Anecdotes. Except as to the extracts given there, they have
never been printed. Every authentic testimony, however, respecting the’ o-ifted indi-
vidual to whom they relate, ought, I think, to be put on record in some permanent Re-
pository : I therefore transmit them for your work. The paper sent was transcribed by
me from a copy in the handwriting of the late Mr. Servanie, lent by that gentleman to
me for the purpose. He informed me that his was transcribed from a copy in the pos-
session of Mr. J. A. Tulk ; who, Mr. Servante understood, had it from Mr. Provo him-
self. Mr. Peter Provo was a respectable gentleman of the medical profession, who
published the work called ’
Wisdom’s Dictates.’—I am. Sec.
" S. Noble.
"Dec. 15, 1835."
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