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142 [Doc. 10.
SWEDENBORG’S ANCESTRY.
assisted the pious, honest, and simple. No one, however
humble his station in life, however poor and simple he may
have been, have I ever suffered to stand out of doors and
wait for me, but I have asked him to come in at once, and
receive his answer and explanation. At the very next meeting
of the Chapter at the cathedral the case of each was taken
up. For we have not been endowed by the Most High
with such an office, to parade it, and let other people bow
before us, and to procrastinate their business without a will
ing and friendly hearing and help .” Swedberg published also
many excellent regulations for the care of the poor, and the
stopping of mendicity. During the famine of 1697-98, his love
of the neighbour was unceasingly active in providing for the
wants of the needy.
It would not be easy to point out any public official who
displayed greater practical usefulness than Swedberg. And
yet he studied and wrote so much , that even in this respect
it would be difficult to find any one who equalled him . He
understood in a high degree the art of husbanding time. “I
do not believe," says he, “ that any one has ever been so
economical with his money as I have been with my time.”
Among his writings those that exhibit his merits regarding the
Swedish language, especially his Schibboleth, have excited the
greatest interest. According to the Swedish Mercury, his
“Schibboleth," or " The Culture and Correctness of the Swedish
Language” (published with a Royal privilege in Skara, 1716,
in 4to ) — " a work which cost him many years’ hard study,"
would have contributed much to the purity and regularity of
the Swedish language, if he had not spoiled his good purpose in
two ways. The first of these, by which, according to the Mercury,
he made his work “ unpalatable and unpopular," was his ortho
graphy, and his introducing into it much " simply for effect
and for causing ridicule,” and secondly, by his insisting that
the language ought to be instituted according to the ortho
graphy which prevailed “ during Gustavus I’s rule," and also
that the Swedish language ought to be written with its
correct cases, genders, persons, &c.; in one word that it ought
to be like the Swedish of the Bible. Yet, nevertheless, and
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