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638 NOTES TO VOLUME I.
instruction of the men that are already born, and that will be born ,
and for the institution of a New Church, and the establishment of
the Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon this earth forever and ever. I
long unceasingly for their propagation and success in the spirits
of my fellow -men , and especially of my fellow -citizens. But however
necessary it is that the progress of this revelation should be as
rapid as we desire, it is still more necessary that those who declare
that they believe in them, should act accordingly. Ought I, for
instance, to have expected that after impressing upon Abbé Pernety
that the translation of the theosophical works of Swedenborg required
the utmost exactness and the greatest fidelity, and that only those
ought to be regarded as real friends of the new revelation, who
admitted it without reservation, and after having received an answer
from him that he was of the same opinion - ought I to have ex
pected, I say, from him, six months after, a translation in which
he lops off, alters, adds, suppresses and transposes at his liking,
and where he contradicts without respect and without shame what
this revelation teaches consistently from one end to the other? It
was no doubt in order that the abomination of desolation might be
completed, that a priest of the Roman communion should under
the pretext of believing in the new revelation, have laid his sacrilegious
hand upon it. I at once broke off correspondence with him , perceiv
ing too from his letters that he had not yet freed himself from
magic (see Note 42), to which he had unfortunately yielded himself
before becoming acquainted with the writings of your countryman,
and which has rendered his mind extremely false. This was the
reason of his placing at the head of his translation a preface which
is a real harangue compared with those of Swedenborg himself....
I am very much afraid that this Abbé is the friend of whom you
did me the honour of speaking in your letter; I hope, however, that
you will not be offended at the liberty with which I express to you
my opinion of him ; being convinced that you are not balancing be
tween the Lord and him, and that in agreement with the doctrine
of the New Jerusalem you do not attach yourself to the person, but
to the good and true in the person .”
From all this it appears that the testimony of Pernety respecting
Swedenborg requires to be very carefully examined and compared
with other testimony; for if he took such liberties in translating one
of Swedenborg’s works, it is quite possible that he took similar
liberties with the testimony that he has published respecting him.
Yet as the persons who sent him this testimony were still living at
the time, and occupied important positions in Sweden and England,
he could not well have garbled their statements without being taken
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