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238 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
** Swedenborg himself never wrote down any of these occurrences, because
they would have been construed as miracles, and thus Swedenborg, who con-
stantly protested against miracles as a means of implanting faith, would have
been placed by his opponents in contradiction and collision with himself. But
when he was appealed to respecting them, as by the Landgrave of Hesse-Darm-
stadt, and by his minister, M. Venator, by Gen. Taxen, in Denmark, by C.
Springer, Esq., Swedish Consul in London, and by M. Ab Indagine, in Amster-
dam, he always affirmed that the occurrences were true ; but at the same time
warned the inquirer against considering them as miracles, but only as testimonies
or proofs that the Lord had opened his spiritual senses to have intercourse with
the spiritual world.
*’ In respect to the Countess de Marteville and the recovery of the mislaid re-
ceipt, this occurrence is attested by several independent witnesses ; 1. By the
Queen of Sweden, who having conferred with the Countess about it, constantly
affirmed the truth of it. 2. By Count Osterman,* at that time Russian Ambassa-
dor at Stockholm, and who had, no doubt, been intimately acquainted with the
Count de Marteville. 3. The second husband of the Countess de Martville,
the Danish General von E , who in a letter to a clergyman requesting to be
particularly informed as to this extraordinary occurrence, related the account as
his wife instructed him. 4. The brother of the Countess, the Baron de Hamou.
5. M. Robsahm, Director of the Bank of Stockholm, f These were direct and
independent witnesses, one of whom, M. Robsahm, was a personal friend of
Swedenborg’s. The Queen highly respected him for his learning and exemplary
conduct, and as one of the senators of the kingdom, but she could not be said to
be so personally acquainted with him and his writings as to be biassed by par-
tiality in his favor ; on the contrary, she was negatively disposed as to everything
spiritual, and more so, as to the possibility of conversing with the inhabitants of
the spiritual world, as is evident from her declaration to the learned savans at
Berlin .
’ The Queen,’ says Thiebault, ’ although she laid great stress on the
truth of her recital, professed herself, at the same time, incredulous to Sweden-
borg’s supposed conferences with the dead.’
" The celebrated Wieland, to whom we have alluded above, after having ex-
amined the authority and the proofs on which the truth of these occurrences
was established, without having yet seen the very important letter of the phi-
losopher Kant, said, in addressing a friend in his work entitled Euthanasia, after
relating the occurrence respecting the Queen of Sweden :
—
as a subsequent production, it would be construed into a gross inconsistency in the author.
But if this was the motive which led either Kant or his editors to change the dates, why
did they not suppress the letter altogether, since as critics, they ought certainly to have
borne in mind, that sooner or later a critic would arise, who would detect the falsification,
and put the matter in its true light. But however this may be, it is of great importance
that these dates should be corrected, because when it is seen that Kant’s letter appeared
after his work on the " Dreams of a Ghost-seer,’^ ^c., in which he holds Swedenborg up
to ridicule and contempt, it shows that whatever, after further examination, might have
been the state of his will as to Swedenborg’s writings, and claims upon the attention of
mankind, his understanding was certainly convinced as to the truth of Swedenborg’s as
eertion, that he had open communication with spirits, and could converse with them.
* Documents, p. 75. See also Stilling’s " Theory of Fneumatology,^’ p. 425.
t Documents, p. 70-90.
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