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144 [Doc. 10.
SWEDENBORG’S ANCESTRY.
pression of his vivacious temperament. Sometimes, however,
he injured thereby both himself and the good cause which
he advocated. Let us quote two instances in his later years.
In the year 1720 he received from Queen Ulrica Eleonora a
sharp warning, in which she threatened him with her disgrace,
if he should again molest her with such “ unseemly and dis
courteous” writings, in which the respect due from a subject
was not at all observed. In the beginning of 1728 he sent to
King Frederic one of his many petitions for the benefit of the
schools. He first told of his journeys abroad, and what he had
seen and learned there for promoting the welfare of the schools ;
how prizes ought to be given freely to the pupils, &c. He
himself had followed this example, and from his own means
had presented the young with " handsome sums of money.” But
in order that this work might continue after his death, "a
higher hand was required for this purpose " _ “ not such a one,”
he adds, “ as I made acquaintance with in my younger days,
when everything that I had to learn was driven in salva
venia, per posteriora .” This free expression was probably the
cause,.why His Majesty did not grant the petition, in which
an application was made for an endowment which might yield
from forty to fifty dalers in silver.
Swedberg’s style furnishes also a clue to his every - day
life. His fundamental character was serious, yet it was not
that kind of seriousness which considers all manifestation
of joy inadmissible. Like many of the most serious men of
the Church, he delighted in music. By the whispering of the
leaves in the forests and the noise of mill-wheels in the brook,
was he reminded of the “ heavenly music," the fundamental
tone of which he found struck in the Book of Revelation. Every
evening usually his good friend Dr. J. Hesselius came, and
played hymns to him upon his violoncello. In this case it
was not the violence of Saul that required to be calmed.
Nevertheless, he, like other mortals, was not perfectly
free from an inclination to vehemence and anger. A
proof of this is his oft -mentioned judgment about Görtz.
Yet this never lasted so long as to disturb the harmony in
his soul, or let the setting sun find him brooding over
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