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Doc. 252.] 411
HÖPKEN TO TUXEN
.
and hence proceeds all the diversity of opinions prevailing
among men, which are never to be reconciled. I agree with
you, Sir, in this, that the Swedenborgian system is more com
prehensible by our reason, and less complicated than other
systems; and while it forms virtuous men and citizens, it prevents,
at the same time, all kinds of enthusiasm and superstition,
both of which occasion so many and such cruel vexations, or
ridiculous singularities, in the world : and from the present
state of religion, more or less everywhere conspicuous, accord
ing to the more or less free form of government, I am perfectly
convinced that the interpolations which men have confusedly
inserted into religion, have nearly effected a total corruption
or revolution; and when this is seen, the Swedenborgian system
will become more general, more agreeable, and more intelligible
than at present, opinionum commenta delet dies, naturæ judicia
confirmat, says Cicero. The work of God is in its com
position simple, and in its duration perpetual ; on the contrary,
the contrivances of man are complicated, and have no lasting
subsistence. Those few truths which we possess, and perhaps
want in this world, are equally intelligible to the most simple
as to the most profound metaphysician. Tenets and arguments
have troubled mortals more than convinced them ; excited more
religious quarrels and wars in Christendom, than they have
made good Christians. The judgment of father Hellens has
afforded me great pleasure ; it proves him to be a reasonable
man. The late Swedenborg did not, on his death-bed, recant
what he had written ; of this I have particularly informed
myself. Your own opinion, Sir, on the Gottenburg affair, is
a lively and exact representation of the persons interested. I
remember here the expressions of an English poet :
’Is there a churchman who on God relies,
Whose life his faith and doctrine justifies ?
They hunt good livings and abhor good lives.’
No notice is to be taken of the English criticisms on the
works of Swedenborg. I have got those journals, but have
not yet been able to discover the nature of their religious
opinions. The letter of David Paul ab Indagine is unknown
to me ; and I have reason to doubt whether Swedenborg, in
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