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LETTER OF THE REV. ARVID FERELIUS. 19>i>
XXXVIII.
LETTER
OF THE SWEDISH CLERGYMAN, REV. ARVID FERELIUS,*
TO PROF. TRATGARD. IN GRIEFSWALDE,
In respect to the ensuing letter it should be stated that Ferelius, shortly after his re-
turn to Sweden, in 1772, was requested by the clerical order to give an account of Swe-
denborg, and to state what particulars he knew concerning their illustrious countryman^
then recently deceased. Ferelius, accordingly, sent in a document of three sheets con-
cerning E. Swedenborg. In his reply to Prof. Tratgard’s request, eight years after-
wards, he states this fact, and regrets that he had not preserved a copy of it, as many
particulars contained therein, had probably elapsed from his memory. The translator
of Ferelius’s letter having perused the document in German (the original having been
Avritten in Swedish), considered that a few supplementary remarks were required, in
order to render the letter, in certain points, uniform with Swedenborg’s own; testimony
concerning the subjects of inquiry, and to remove any obscurity which might exist. In
so doing, the translator certainly took upon himself a high degree of responsibility,
which, however, would have been warrantable, had he enclosed the supplementary
remarks in brackets ; but this he omitted to do. In order, however, to satisfy our read-
ers upon this question, we subjoin a strictly literal translation of the said letter.
*’
Honorable and widely Celebrated Professor,
" According to your request, I will communicate what I can remember re-
specting the last days of our celebrated countryman, the late Assessor, E. Swe-
denborg, who died in London in the month of March, 1772. I performed the
funeral service at his interment, in the Swedish church in that city, on the 5tb
of April, which was the last clerical duty T had to perform in that country. At
the conclusion of the former year, he had a paralytic stroke, which lamed one
side and affected his speech : this was particularly the case if the air was thick
and heavy. I visited him several times, and asked him each time whether he
thought he should then die. He answered in the affirmative. Upon which I
observed to him, that as many persons thought that he had endeavored only to
make himself a name, or to acquire celebrity in the world by the publication of
his new theological system (which indeed he had already attained), he should
now be ready, in order to show justice to the world, to recant either the whole
or a part of what he had written, since he had now nothing more to expect from
the w^orld, which he was so soon about to leave for ever. Upon hearing these
words from me, Swedenborg raised himself half upright in his bed, and placing
his sound hand upon his breast, said, with great zeal and emphasis, ’ As true
* This was the clergyman who is said to have administered the sacrament to
Swedenborg just before his death. In several passages in the early part of this volume
his name is erroneously spelt Fernelius. The error, however, is copied from the Eng-
lish edition of the Documents.
—
B.
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