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636 NOTES TO VOLUME I.
time all intercourse with the family, so that three letters which
Polhem wrote to Swedenborg, were returned to him unopened;
wherefore Polhem wrote to Benzelius, “As I understand that he
is probably now at Upsal, I must beg you to offer him my greeting,
or else to send it to him by letter wherever he may be at present,
and also to ask him to favour me with one of his welcome letters,
which are so much the more acceptable in our house, as he has
given us sufficient cause to love him as our own son."
NOTE 34.
ABBÉ PERNETY .
“ Anton Joseph Pernety was born Feb. 13, 1716. In the year
1763, he joined the order of the Benedictines, and after some time
was made Abbot of St. Germain . In 1763, he went with Bougain
ville to the Malouinian Islands, in order to take possession of them
in the name of France. He afterwards favoured the dissolution of
the order of the Benedictines; and as his wishes were not realized,
he left the chapter and his order, and accepted from Frederic the
Great an invitation to Prussia. He was appointed by him chief
librarian of the public library, and a member of the Royal Academy
of Sciences and Fine Arts in Berlin ; he was likewise a member of
the Academy of Florence. After some time he received the abbey
of Bürgel in Thuringia. In the years 1781 and 1782, he became
acquainted with several of Swedenborg’s followers, and collected his
notices concerning him . With difficulty he was allowed to resign
his position in Berlin, and return in 1783 to Paris. He then
lived for some time in Valence, but finally retired to Avignon,
where he resided during the French Revolution. Although he kept
aloof from everything that savoured of politics, maintained silence,
and lived in retirement, still he was made a prisoner, and was not
released until the 9th Thermidor. He died in the year 1801.” This
notice of Pernety we translate from Dr. I. Tafel’s German edition
of the Swedenborg Documents, Vol. I, p . 69. To it we may add,
on the authority of C. Lenning’s “ Encyclopaedie der Freimauerei”
(Encyclopædia of Freemasonry ), that at Avignon Pernety established
a secret society which made use of masonic formulæ and emblems.
This Society which Lenning calls “ Académie ou Société des Illuminés
d’Avignon,” had besides the three degrees of John, one higher degree,
which was based on the doctrines of St. Martin and Swedenborg,
and which was called “the true mason.” It is quite possible that
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