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TESTIMONY OF THE QUEEN OF SWEDEN. 93
claim: yet as Providence permitted him, on some occasions, to give full demonstration
of his supernatural knowledge, we must conclude that it was granted for some useful
end. That end may be, to aflord satisfaction to those, who, though favorably inclined
towards the doctrines of the New Church in general, would yet feel more assured by
some external tokens. On those who are decidedly opposed to the truths contained in
our author’s writings, no external tokens whatever, we are quite certain, would induce
reception : but to others, those which follow may be useful as confirmations : in which
light, only, they are offered.
Two of the most extraordinary instances of Swedenborg’s access to the spiritual world,
are those respecting the Countess de Marteville, whose husband was ambassador at the
Swedish court from Holland, and the queen of Sweden, Louisa Ulrica, wife of king
Adolphus Frederick, and sister of the celebrated Frederick of Prussia. Many editions
of these anecdotes in diiferent works, resting on the authority of different relaters, have
appeared ; but all agreeing in substance. Both of them are given by M. Pernetti, in
the preface to his French translation of the Treatise on Heaven and Hell, upon the au-
thority of Count Hopken. Both are mentioned, also, by Mr. Springer ; and that re-
lating to the queen is given in the letter of General Tuxen’s cited above ; who states,
that, having heard of it from various jjersons, he inquired the exact particulars from
Swedenborg himself. But we will give it in the queen’s own words, as recorded,
together with the anecdote of the Countess de Marteville, by an author who cannot be
suspected of any partiality in favor of Swedenborg ; we mean M. Dieudonne Thiebault,
a French savant of the school of Voltaire, and Professor of Belles Lettres in the Royal
Academy of Berlin. He was the author of a work translated into English, and printed
at London in 1805, under the title of" Original Anecdotes of Frederick the Great, King
cf Prussia." He represents queen Louisa Ulrica as being, like her brother, a professed
esprit fort, carrying it even to the avowal of atheism ; which we mention as necessary
to account for the contradictory remarks with which she concludes her narration ; and
because it* makes her a more unexceptionable witness to the fact she relates. It oc-
curred in 1758.
PART II.
TESTIMOxNIES TO SWEDENBORG’S INTERCOURSE WITH THE
SPIRITUAL WORLD.
XIV.
THE QUEEN OF SWEDEN’S TESTIMONY
CONCERNING SWEDENBORG’S
INTERCOURSE WITH THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
" I know not on what occasion it was," says M. Thiebault, " that, conversing
one day with the queen on the subject of the celebrated visionary, Swedenborg,
we (the members of the academy,) expressed a desire, particularly MyMerian
and myself, to know what opinion was entertained of him in Sweden. I, on my
part, related what had been told me respecting him by Chamberlain d’Hamon
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