Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
180 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
matics, which he declined. In the same year he was elected a member of the
Academy of Sciences at Upsal. The same honor was conferred upon him by
that of St. Petersburg in 1734.
" Now after Swedenborg had made himself acquainted with all the erudition
of his time, and after the greatest honors had been bestowed upon him by indi-
viduals and whole societies, he began to see spirits. His panegyrist (Baron
Sandel) says that he had considered the visible world, and the nature of its re-
spective parts, as a means by which we might, perhaps, become acquainted
with the invisible world ; that he at first formed an hypothesis respecting it, and
at length reduced it to a whole system. If this be the case, one must naturally
conclude, that this system, even if it be a true one, must appear very strange to
those, who of the visible world know very little, and of the invisible nothing at
all, yea, cannot but appear to them in a very ridiculous light. Nil sacri est, said
Hercules in a very angry manner one day, when he found in a temple the statue
of Adonis. In the character and life of Swedenborg, such an Adonis is not met
with, for whose sake he might have embraced different notions to what are
generally received, as is commonly the case. He was always a virtuous man,
and one who was interiorly affected with the beauty and majesty of the visible
world.
*’ Whether Swedenborg really saw spirits, or anything new, or whether he
was out of his senses, is a question which none of his opposers have hitherto
been able to decide. However, we cannot help thinking that there are spirits, and
Swedenborg often affirmed in his lifetime with great earnestness, and even on
his death-bed in London, where he died March 29, 1772, that he was able to see
spirits, and had seen them.
" Now as the New World really existed long before Columbus found it out,
though we in Europe were ignorant of its existence, so perhaps there may be a
means to see spirits, though as yet we are unacquainted in what manner the
spectacles ought to be shaped to accomplish the design. And suppose we
were to make a pair of spectacles on purpose, and to make experiments, it does
not follow that we should succeed. In the opinion of many wise people, there
lies a great deal of truth hidden perhaps close by us ; therefore the strivings of
a good man to find out the truth, ought rather to meet with applause than be
censured with acrimony."
XXXIV,
MEMORANDA RESPECTING SWEDENBORG.
BY THE LATE MR. PECKITT.
*’ London, January the 24th, 1778. I Henry Peckitt, went to Bath Street, Cold
Bath Fields, to one Mr. Shearsmith, a barber, at whose house the learned and
honorable Emanuel Swedenborg lodged, and died the 29th of March, 1772, and
was then, as I have since found, 84 years old.
" He, by the order of one Mr. Charles Lendegren, a Swedish merchant, who
lives in Mincing Lane, Fenchurch Street, was laid in state at an undertaker’s,
and deposited, in three coffins, in the vault of the Swedish Church in Prince’s
Square, Radcliffe Highway ; with all the ceremonies of that Church.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
