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DOCUMENT 199.
LETTER OF SWEDENBORG TO DOCTOR
NORDBERG.148*
As you are engaged at present upon a life of Charles XII,
I feel called upon to communicate to you some facts with
which you are probably not acquainted, and which deserve
* A copy of the Swedish original of this letter appeared in Vol. II,
pp. 599–602 of Dr. Nordberg’s "Carl XII’s Historia,” 1740. A German
translation of this work was published in three volumes from 1745–51,
and in the third volume published in 1751 on p. 570 et seq. is Sweden
borg’s letter which Dr. Immanuel Tafel transferred thence to his collection
of " Documents." Dr. Tafel does not seem to have been aware of
the fact that the Swedish edition of the work was published as early
as 1740, or else he would not have dated the composition of the letter
from the year 1745 or 1746. Prof. Atterbom inserted this letter from the
Swedish edition of the work into the Appendix to his “ Siare och Skalder,"
and in a note makes the following remarks with regard to the date of the
letter. “Tafel, in the third section of his interesting Collection of Docu
ments,’ &c. supposes that Swedenborg had written this letter in 1745 or
1746, immediately after his return home from London, where he had re
ceived his first revelations. Yet it was without doubt written twelve, or at
least ten years earlier, during his stay at Stockholm after his return from
his journey in Germany, Austria, and Hungary in 1733, and before he start
ed anew on his journey abroad from 1736 to 1739. The words in the be
ginning of the letter, ’As you are now engaged ,’ & c., seem to indicate that
much time had not passed since Nordberg had entered upon his work.
He received the commission for the work in 1731. It was published in
two volumes in the Swedish language, in 1740, and the second volume
contains Swedenborg’s letter. Tafel has been misled by the date of the Ger
man edition which appeared several years afterwards." The English trans
lation of this letter contained in the Appendix to the English, and also to the
American edition, of Dr. Tafel’s “ Documents ” was made from the French
translation of Dr. Nordberg’s "History of Charles XII," published at the
Hague in 1748. The above translation has been prepared immediately from
the Swedish .
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