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86 SWEDENBORG’S TRAVELS AND DIARIES. [Doc. 206.
one very curious trick was performed. At a moment’s
notice they became changed from female puppets into statues,
and where the head had been before there was a basket filled
with little people, and a seat for sitting down ; again a woman
was changed into a man, and afterwards into a windmill, the
wings of which were turning around ; it was certainly a dis
play of skill and dexterity. The exchange building is the
finest I have yet seen ; but it was not attended, as in Amster
dam, by such a great number of persons, who are the chief
ornament of an exchange.
I here considered why it was that it has pleased our Lord to
bless such an uncouth and avaricious people with such a splendid
country ; why He has preserved them for such a long time
from all misfortunes ; has caused them to surpass all other
nations in commerce and enterprize ; and made their country
a place whither most of the riches not only of Europe but
also of other places flow. The principal cause seems to me
to have been, that it is a republic, wherein the Lord delights
more than in monarchical countries ; as appears also from
Rome. The result is, that no one deems himself obliged and
in duty bound to accord honour and veneration to any human
being, but considers the low as well as the high to be of the
same worth and consequence as a king and emperor ; as is
also shown by the native bent and disposition of every one
in Holland. The only one for whom they entertain a feeling
of veneration is the Lord, putting no trust in flesh ; and
when the Highest is revered most, and no human being is
in His place, it is most pleasing to the Lord. Besides, each
enjoys his own free-will, and from this his worship of God
flows ; for each is, as it were, his own king and rules under
the government of the Highest ; and from this it follows again,
that they do not, out of fear, timidity, and excess of caution,
lose their courage and their independent rational thought, but
in full freedom and without being borne down, they are able
to fix their souls upon, and elevate them to, the honour of the
Highest, who is unwilling to share His worship with any other.
At all events, those minds that are borne down by a sovereign
power are brought up in flattery and falsity; they learn how
to speak and act differently from what they think ; and when
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