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610 NOTES TO VOLUME I.
NOTE 8.
LARS BENZELSTIERNA .
Lars Benzelstierna, son of Archbishop Ericus theelder, and
brother of the Benzelii mentioned in Notes 6 and 7. He married
Hedvig, a younger sister of Emanuel Swedenborg (see Note 5 B). In
1719 he was ennobled, when his name Benzelius was changed to
Benzelstierna. He was a fellow -assessor of Em. Swedenborg’s in the
College of Mines from 1722 to 1744, when he received the appointment
of Councillor of Mines. In 1747, he became the governor of a province
[landshöfding]. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences
in 1740, and its president in 1741. He died in 1755. The Swedish
Biographical Dictionary (Vol. 2, p. 113) says of him , “He was not
distinguished by any great quality, but he possessed in an even degree
many good qualities." As he was one of his fellow -assessors in the
College of Mines, Swedenborg saw a good deal of him, but does not
seem to have had any great liking for him. In Document 82, he
complains of his being "somewhat unpleasant" towards him . After
the decease of Bishop Swedberg’s second wife, Sara Bergia, Lars
Benzelstierna and Swedenborg became joint owners of Starbo,68 an
iron furnace in Dalecarlia, which had been her property. This
connexion seems to have been anything but a pleasant one: for against
Lars Benzelstierna, we believe, Swedenborg made all those charges
which are found written in Swedish on the last page of the original
manuscript of the “Spiritual Diary," and which has been printed by
the editor of “ Swedenborg’s Drömmar," on p. 72 of that work .
Swedenborg simply gives there the initial B., and the editor of the
“ Drömmar" suggests E. before it; but by referring to the “Spiritual
Diary," No. 5134, it is very evident that the initials are L. B. or
Lars Benzelstierna: for the general charges there made against L. B.
are the same as the particular charges made against B., in the passage
mentioned; and he is there charged with nothing less than having
made various attempts on Swedenborg’s life. Swedenborg also accuses
him of having been at the bottom of the difficulty which he had
with his aunt Brita Behm50 (see Document 132), and with Councillor
Nordencrantz 133 (see Documents 182 to 193). Another accusation which
he brings against him is, that he acted unfairly and unjustly in the
division of his father’s estate, as is proved by Swedenborg’s brother
Jesper in Document 126. In the “Spiritual Diary," No. 5702 he
makes the following statement respecting him : “Lars Benzel belonged
to those who are accounted by the world as learned , nay as more
)
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