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Doc. 191.] 531
SWEDENBORG TO NORDENCRANTZ.
against the fundamental laws of the country I regard as a
calumny and a lie of the most infamous kind, and the crimin
ality of which cannot be excused on the plea of ignorance of
what is properly understood by fundamental laws.
I remain, well-born Assessor,
Your most obedient servant,
NORDENCRANTZ .
Stockholm, February 18, 1761.
DOCUMENT 191.
A.
THIRD LETTER OF SWEDENBORG IN REPLY
TO C. R. NORDENCRANTZ.133 *
Well-born Councillor of Commerce,
My answer to your last letter is as follows: I
have only done what was done by yourself. You announced
your book " till plena," (i.e. to the four Houses in full sitting,)
and afterwards made it public ; I extracted from , and remarked
upon, your book, and afterwards made extracts from it for the
purpose of furnishing proofs; I then announced this “till plena”
in the four Houses, and afterwards made it public. The differ
ence simply is, that the one is printed, and the other written ;
and as I did all openly, and, besides, communicated it to you,
and informed you of it, and did not circulate it in secret, you ought
to have hesitated before applying the offensive word “ libel.” Again
as I have not once mentioned the word " fundamental law"either
in my first or in my later communication, the words "calumny and
lie of the most infamous kind" ought not to have flowed from
your head into your pen: for to write in such a style is the
mark rather of an irrational than of a rational man. Accord
ingly, you rubricate only my last communication, which con
* The Swedish original of this letter is preserved in the “ Bergius
Collection of Letters," &c. Vol. XVI, p. 315, in the Library of the Academy
of Sciences in Stockholm .
34 *
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