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212 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
the section on the habitations of angels : *As often as I have conversed with the
angels, face to face, it was in their habitations which are like to our houses on
earth, but far more beautiful and magnificent; having rooms, chambers, and
apartments, in great variety, as also spacious courts belonging to them ; toge-
ther with gardens, parterres of flowers, fields, &c. Where the angels are formed
into societies, they dwell in contiguous habitations, disposed after the manner
of our cities, in streets, walks, and squares : I have had the privilege to walk
through them, to examine all round about me, and to enter their houses; and
this when I was fully awake, having my inward eyes opened. I have seen also
the palaces in heaven, the magnificence of which exceeds description, the roofs
glittering as with pure gold, and the floors as with precious stones : but some
more splendid than others; the inner apartments likewise were ornamented
beyond all human conception. On the south side were gardens, where all things
appeared with radiant lustre, certain trees bearing leaves of a silver hue, and
fruit that glittered like burnished gold, whilst flowers in the borders, by a beau-
tiful arrangement of their colors, presented, as it were, rainbows to the eyes of
the spectator : at the end of the walks fresh palaces rose to view, and termin-
ated the prospect. Such is the architecture and beautiful scenery in heaven
;
insomuch that it may well be said, that the very principle of art appears there
in its effects, and no wonder, when we consider such art is heavenly : and yet
the angels said, that not only like things, but others beyond number, of still
higher degrees of perfection, were at times exhibited to their view, by the good-
ness of the Lord, for their recreation and entertainment ; and yet that the intel-
lectual pleasure they received therefrom was greater than the sensible, and that,
because in all and singular of those objects they discerned correspondency, and
through their correspondents, the divine things which they represented.’
" In whatever light we regard this Author, there is something truly astonish-
ing in him and his writings. He was a man of eminence and distinction in his
country; of respected estimation, we are told, in the royal family during the
late reigns ; he had held an honorable employment under the crown ; had a con-
siderable share of learning ; and in private life was irreproachable ; beside which
it is said, that during more than the last thirty years of his life, at the expense
of his fortune, and the sacrifice of worldly enjoyments, he was indefatigable in
his labors to instruct the world in important truths relating to salvation.
" In a preface, which shows the sincerity and piety of its writer, our Transla-
tor urges all that can be said to procure credit and respect to his Author and his
narrations, and farther observes, ’ we have to add, on the credit of two worthy
persons (one of them a learned physician who attended him in his last sick-
ness), that he confirmed the truth of all that he had published relating to his
communications with the world of spirits, by his solemn testimony, a very short
time before he departed this life, in London, Anno Dom. 1772.’
" On such, and other considerations, the works of Count (?) Swedenborg are
here recommended to the serious attention of the reader :
* If, after all,’ says the
translator, * thou canst not read him as the enlightened seer, and the extraordi-
nary messenger of important news from the other world, read him as the Chris-
tian divine and the sage interpreter of scripture ; read him as the judicious
moralist, and acute metaphysician ; or read him as the profound philosopher
;
or if he cannot please in any of these characters, read him at least as the inge-
nious author of a divine romance : but if neither as such he can give content,
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