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32 [Doc. 5 .
GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
and plain ; but were comfortable for him , though scarcely for
any one else. Although he was a learned man, no books were
ever seen in his room, except his Hebrew and Greek Bible,
and his manuscript indexes to his own works, by which, in
making quotations, he was saved the trouble of examining all
that he had previously written or printed.
3. Swedenborg worked without much regard to the distinction
of day and night, having no fixed time for labour or rest. “ When
I am sleepy”, he said, “I go to bed .” All the attendance he
required from his servant, his gardener’s wife, consisted in her
making his bed, and placing a large jug of water in his ante
room, his house-keeping being so arranged that he could make
his own coffee in his study ; and this coffee he drank in great
abundance, both day and night, and with a great deal of sugar.
When not invited out, his dinner consisted of nothing but a
roll soaked in boiled milk ; and this was his meal always when
he dined at home. He never at that time used wine or
strong drink, nor did he eat anything in the evening; but in
company he would eat freely, and indulge moderately in a
social glass.
4. For the sake of the public that came to see the old
gentleman, generally from curiosity, he had a pretty summer
house built in his garden in 1767 ; on one side of this was his
handsome library, and in the wing that stretched out on the
other side were garden-tools. He had also another summer
house put up in the middle of his garden, according to the
plan of one he had seen in England on a gentleman’s estate;
and still another, which was square and had four doors, and
which could, by opening the doors across the corners of the
room , be changed into an octagon. In one corner of his
garden he had also constructed a maze of boards, entirely for
the amusement of the good people that would come and visit
him in his garden, and especially for their children ; and there
he would receive them with a cheerful countenance, and enjoy
their delight at his contrivances.
5. Among these things I must also mention a blind
door which he had made; and when this was opened,
another one appeared with a window in it; and as both these
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