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146 SWEDENBORG’S TRAVELS AND DIARIES. [ Doc. 208.
spirit spoke a few words to me, when I was greatly astonished
at his perceiving my thoughts. I was afterwards, when my
mind was opened, greatly astonished that I could converse
with spirits ; as the spirits were that I should wonder. From
this it may be concluded how difficult it is for man to believe
that he is governed by the Lord through spirits ; and how
difficult it is for him to give up the opinion that he lives his
own life of himself without the agency of spirits " (Spiritual
Diary, no. 2951). [ See Note 162 ]. An additional reference to
those dreams which Swedenborg had before he was fully
introduced as to his spirit into the spiritual world, was made
by him in the beginning of 1746, in the " Adversaria." After
speaking of dreams, visions, and representations, in a general
way, he says there : "That these things are so I can attest ;
and their being so ought the less to be doubted, because,
by the Divine mercy of God-Messiah, they have happened so
frequently, that they have become quite familiar to me. I
learned them partly by dreams which I had at first during
a number of years, when I learned something of their real
signification [see Note 161 ], and partly by the other revelations
[i . e. visions and representations] ; and also by additional
revelations, as, for instance, when the very letters appeared
written before my eyes, and were read to me, &c. &c. But I am
not yet permitted to say more concerning these" (Vol. II, no. 183).
Another description of the degree in which his spiritual
sight was opened during that time is given by him in the
"Spiritual Diary," under the date of August 31 , 1747, in
these words : "For nearly three years [about the middle of
1744] , I was allowed to perceive and notice the operation of
spirits, not by a sort of internal sight, but by a sensation which
is associated with a sort of obscure sight, by which I noticed
their presence, which was various, their approach and departure,
besides many other things" (no. 192).
7
If now we take a retrospective view of Swedenborg’s
spiritual experiences before he was admitted consciously into
the spiritual world, we find that his first spiritual manifestations
were no doubt in the form of dreams, as appears from our con
cluding remarks on Document 206 (p. 130) ; for we see there that
Swedenborg had commenced as early as 1736 to write down
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