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Doc. 257.] 487
JUNG-STILLING’S TESTIMONY.
nished proofs, against which no objection can be raised. The
veracity of these relations has been impugned, and the good
gentleman has even been charged with imposture ; but this
charge I deny emphatically. Swedenborg was no impostor,
but a pious Christian man. Three proofs that he had actual
ly intercourse with spirits are generally known concerning him."
Stilling gives here an account of the occurrence with the
Queen of Sweden, of Swedenborg’s second sight in describing
at Gottenburg a conflagration that took place in Stockholm,
and the story of the mislaid receipt. In respect to the truth
of these relations Stilling gives some independent testimony,
which we shall examine in subdivision E of the present Section.
He then continues:
"But I must add here a fourth experimental proof which
has not been made public before, and which is fully as im
portant as any of the foregoing. I can vouch for the truth of
it with the greatest certainty:*
"About the year 1770, there was a merchant in Elberfeld,
with whom, during seven years of my residence there, I lived
in close intimacy. He was a strict mystic in the purest
sense. He spoke little ; but what he said, was like golden
fruit on a salver of silver. He would not have dared, for all
the world, knowingly to have told a falsehood. This friend of
mine, who has long ago left this world for a better, related
to me the following anecdote:
"His business required him to take a journey to Amster
dam, where Swedenborg at that time resided ; and having heard
and read much of this singular man, he formed the intention
of visiting him, and becoming better acquainted with him. He
therefore called upon him, and found a very venerable-looking
friendly old man, who received him politely, and requested him
to be seated; on which the following conversation began :
Merchant. Having been called hither by business, I could
not deny myself the honour, Sir, of paying my respects to you:
your writings have caused me to regard you as a very re
markable man.
Swedenborg. May I ask you where you are from?
* See English translation, p. 90. Stilling left Elberfeld in 1778.
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