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134 [Doc. 10.
SWEDENBORG’S ANCESTRY.
»
contained in it can be disproved.” “Yes, yes, do that,” said
the King, who seemed pleased with the idea. The King
finally lent me his copy of Hjärne’s book with a good deal
of ceremony. A few days afterwards, in the morning, I
returned into His Majesty’s hands the book of Hjärne, ob
serving that no one had such an unsteady and confused style
as he exhibited in this treatise. If it depended upon him ,
our noble language would be completely spoiled ; this I shall
prove in the proper place. His book too is filled with
personal and scurrilous remarks, which are altogether forbidden
in the royal orders and laws ; I expressed my astonishment,
that the Censor should have allowed such a book to pass.
All this I had written on half a sheet, and fastened it in
the beginning of the book. A distinguished gentleman who
was present observed, that the book would have been more
scandalous if the Censor’ had not remonstrated ; moreover it
was not quite finished. I then took my humble leave, His
Majesty being very gracious, shaking my hand, and wishing
me a safe journey ."
The favour with which Swedberg was regarded by the two
Kings, was, if possible, greater with Queen Ulrica Eleonora.
He had corresponded with her while she was Princess, and
the correspondence was continued after she was raised to
the throne. But the great confidence on the one hand en
gendered suspicion on the other. Notwithstanding his liberal
views in general, Swedberg was a royalist in a sense that no one
need to blush for; but if this constituted a virtue while such
Kings as Charles XI and Charles XII sat upon the throne, it
became a great fault in the eyes of many, after the sceptre had
passed into the hands of Ulrica Eleonora. He was suspected of
attempting to sow discord between her and the Diet which
assembled for the memorable session of 1719. These suspi
cions became more and more audible. That they troubled
very much the heart of the aged and honourable man, appears
from a defence which he wrote to the members of the Diet,
and from a letter to the Queen, which were dated respect
ively the 4th and 26th of April, of the same year. In his
defence he declared that ." as long as Psalms xvii and
xxvii stood in the Psalm book, no one, however great and
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