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494 TESTIMONY OF CONTEMPORARIES. [Doc. 258.
eye ; his language is quite different from the common modes of
speech; and his sense is sometimes so deep and profound, as not
to be readily apprehended by a common understanding. Who
ever, therefore, takes this book in hand, and finds passages in
it not easily intelligible, let him not throw it by as a thing
of no value, nor content himself with a bare perusal; but let
him read it over and over again ; let him study the drift and
design of the author ; and I will answer for it, that the more
and oftener he reads it, the more instruction and delight he
will receive from it. The author has a depth, which, if once
fathomed, (and it is not unfathomable,) will yield the noblest
repast to a pious mind. But if any one imagines that I say
this to puff a book, in the sale of which my interest is so
nearly concerned, any gentleman is welcome to peruse it at
my shop, and to purchase it or not, as his own judgment shall
direct him.
Nothing recommends a book more effectually to the public
than the eminence and credit of its author ; nothing is more
notorious, than that a weak performance, if it appears under
a great name, shall be better received in the world than the
most sublime and ingenious productions of an obscure person:
so that it is not merit but prejudice that generally governs
the judgment of men.
Though the author of Arcana Calestia is undoubtedly a
very learned and great man, and his works highly esteemed
by the literati, yet he is no less distinguished for his modesty
than his great talents, so that he will not suffer his name to
be made public. But though I am positively forbid to dis
cover that, yet I hope he will excuse me if I venture to mention
his benign and generous qualities. How he bestowed his time
and labours in former years, I am not certainly informed
(though I have heard by those who have been long acquainted
with him, that they were employed in the same manner as I
am going to relate) ; but what I have been an eye-witness to,
I can declare with certain truth ; and therefore I do aver,
that this gentleman, with indefatigable pains and labour, spent
one whole year in studying and writing the first volume of
Arcana Cœlestia, was at the expense of two hundred pounds
to print it, and also advanced two hundred pounds more for
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