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442
[Doc . 256.
TESTIMONY OF CONTEMPORARIES.
mostly of an ecclesiastical nature ; of the same Cuno in fact
concerning whom some notices may be found in Stosch’s
’
Neuem gelehrten Europa’ (The New learned Europe), Vol. XVI,
pp. 980 to 1031 ; and also in Jörden’s ’Lexicon deutscher
Dichter und Prosaisten’ (Lexicon of German Poets and Prose
writers), Vol. V, pp. 838 to 840. I found his name also
mentioned in the French biographical collections, yet with
errors in their treatment of him, which they probably derived
from German sources.
"At first I did not feel much interested in reading four
thousand folio pages on a man who is scarcely known by name
to the great public acquainted with literature, and who moved
during the greater part of his life in the sphere of commerce,
and indeed of a sea-port removed from the current of thought
of the German fatherland ; my hope also was but slight of
meeting there with anything of interest to the history of
literature. Very soon, however, I felt attracted, partly by
the moral dissertations and theological disquisitions, both in
prose and poetry, which abounded in the volumes, and partly
by the vigorous and ever honourable character of the author,
and his thorough appreciation and understanding of everything
pertaining to science, art, and social interests ; but especially
by the chequered course of the events of his life, so that I
read nearly three-fourths of the legible and well arranged
manuscript.
"Cuno’s style is often prolix and laboured, and his language
intermixed with Dutch expressions, but his account is always
elevating and attractive from his great mental activity, his
fund of knowledge and experience, and his strict morality; of
all which his pages offer vivid testimony."
Dr. Scheler afterwards gives an interesting biographical
account of Cuno, a great part of which is embodied in Note
212 ; and on page 16 he continues, " An episode in the year
1769, during which he was fortunate enough to associate with
Swedenborg, seemed to me of especial value, and the extract
from Cuno’s Memoirs, which is given in the following pages,
will I think be generally welcomed. "
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