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452 TESTIMONY OF CONTEMPORARIES. [Doc. 256.
upon Swedenborg quietly left the Hague, and probably will
never go there again in his life, for he would be stigmatized
there as a false prophet, an arch-dreamer, and a liar."
This arrant falsehood was most cunningly invented, and
on that account very probable, and not at all incredible ; but
it was easy for me to demonstrate its falsity. "He who has
related this for the first time, " I replied, "understood the art
of telling a likely falsehood better than I. It was last year
that the papers represented Voltaire as dead, and again
as living. But I can easily prove, that during the time it
was reported that Voltaire was dead, and again as having
revived, Mr. Swedenborg did not stir a foot towards the
Hague, but during the whole winter remained constantly in
Amsterdam. If any one, therefore, knows it to be true, as
he may easily know if he chooses, that during that time the
old gentleman was nowhere but in Amsterdam, he can never
believe that at that very same time he committed at the
Hague a foolish action, for which he himself and his friends
would have to blush. I can add to this, that I have seen
letters at the old gentleman’s from the French and the
Swedish ambassadors inviting him to the Hague. His first
journey from here will, therefore, be to the Hague. He is
almost on the point of departing, and is waiting only for the
confinement of the Princess of Orange, when he will start on
his voyage, so that upon his return to Sweden he may tell
the Queen that he has seen the new-born Prince or Princess
of Orange. I am not at all willing to go security for the old
gentleman to the extent that everything he tells in his writings
should be believed; but I am willing to remain responsible for
this statement, that what I have just heard concerning him
is an arrant and manifest falsehood."
I do not believe that the narrator, nor perhaps the
inventor of this story, has told it any further. It was interest
ing, however, that in a few days the papers really retracted
the statement of the Bishop of Coimbra having been hung.
The old gentleman, therefore, was at once regarded again as
a prophet.
I generally repeated to him what I had heard concerning
him. He smiled when I told him the story about Voltaire,
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