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TESTIMONY OF THE QUEEN OF SWEDEN. 95
quences of them; and men of quick parts, who are never so well pleased as
when they exhibit something wonderful, take an advantage of this to gain an
extraordinary reputation. Swedenborg was a man of learning, and of same
talent in this way; but I cannot imagine by what means he obtained the know-
ledge of what had been communicated to no one. However, I have no faith, in
his having had a conference with my brother.’ "
These philosophical remarks of the queen’s would deserve introduction in a work
which I have often thought (says the Rev. S. Noble in his able " Appeal in Behalf of
the Doctrines of the New Christian Church, ^-c," p. 203,) might be written, and be
equally amusing and instructive, under the title of "the Credulity of Unbelievers."
Here is an accomplished princess, who finds another person in possession of a secret
which she is quite sure ^vas only known to herself and her deceased brother : she knows
that he did not obtain it from herself, yet rather than believe that he obtained it from
her brother, she imagines the existence oi a " talent’* incomparably more inexplicable !
The same observation (continues Mr. ISToble,) applies to several’ other relators of the
story. One of these is Baron de Grimm. He allows Swedfenborg to- have been " a
man dislinguished not only by his probity, but also by his knowledge and his intelli-
gence." [UVi homme distingud non seulement par sa probitd mais encore par ses connai-
sdnces ct seslumieres.\ Yet he, after giving the above anecdote, gives this contradiction-
iti-terms as his judgment on it :
" This fact is confirmed by authorities so respectable,
that it is impossible to deny it ; but the question is how to believe it !" \,Cc fait est con-
firm6 par des aiUoritis si respectables qu^ il est impossible de le nier ; mais le moyen d’y^
croire .’’\* But Baron de Grimm was professedly a determined atheist, and therefore
could not believe any fact, however evidenced, which supposes, as real, the existence
of man after death.
Another^elater of the anecdote is not much less inconsistent. This is Captain Charles
Leonard de Sfahlhammer, Knight of the Royal Order of the Sword. Some editions of
the story affirm, that what Swedenborg repeated to the queen were the contents of a
letter which she had’ received from her brother : and as the main facts were undeniable,
some of Swedenborg’s enemies, so late as t7S8, endeavored to account for them by the
improbable tale, that Count Hopken had intercepted and opened the letter before the
queen received it, and that he and another senator communicated the contents of it to
Swedenborg, paying him for that purpose a mysterious visit in the night. To this
Captain Stahlhammer replied, in a letter dated May 13th-, 1788, and printed in some of
the Gazettes.f
As we have a more authentic account of the first of tlie above-mentioned transactions
in a Memoir of Swedenborg by C. Robsalim published by Dr. Tafel in his Magazine,
we give it in this connexion, together with a confirmatory statement from Mad. de
Marteville’s second husband.
—
B.
"An ambassador from Holland, named Marteville, died at Stockholm, After
his death a considerable sum was demanded of liis widow in payment of a
debt. She felt very certain the debt had been paid, but was unable to find a
receipt for the money. After some time she found one among her husband’s
papers, and it was reported all over the city that Swedenborg had discovered it
by means of a conversation with M. Marteville in the spiritual world. I in-
quired of Swedenborg about the circumstance, and he told me that the lady had
* See Memoirs Hist. Lit. et Anecdotiques, tirh de la Correspondence addressee au Due
de Saxe Gotha par le Baron de Grimm. Tom. iii. p. 56. Ed. Lond. IS 13.
t See Intellectual Repository for 1813, p. 370.
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