Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Doc. 270.] 583
CHARGE OF INSANITY
.
specific grounds on which they declared him to have been
insane.
But before investigating these specific charges, let us
advance some general common-sense arguments, showing the
utter unreasonableness of their attempt.
In the first place, supposing Swedenborg to have been
insane, his insanity must be dated from the time, when, accord
ing to his own testimony, his spiritual eyes were opened, which
event took place about the year 1743 ; if a later date is accepted
for the beginning of his insanity, there is an utter want of
logic in the charge. Suppose then Swedenborg to have be
come really insane at the time from which he dates the opening
of his spiritual sight ; yet what are we to think of an insane
man who for nearly eighteen years carefully conceals his insanity
from the gaze of every body, so that not even the slightest
suspicion is raised against him ? Such is the case with Sweden
borg; for suppose him to have become insane in 1743, when,
as he declares, his intercourse with the spiritual world commenced ;
yet as we have documentary proof (see Tilas’s Letter, Docu
ment 249, p. 395), that until 1759 no one in Stockholm had the
slightest idea of his intercourse with the spiritual world, he
must actually have been insane for upwards of seventeen years
without any one being aware of it.
Again says Mr. Hartley (Document 259, no. 17), "If to
write many large volumes on the most important of all subjects
with unvaried consistency, to reason accurately, and to give
proofs of an astonishing memory all the way ; and if hereto be
joined propriety and dignity of character in all the relative
duties of Christian life ; if all this can be reconciled with the
definition of madness, why here is an end of all distinction
between sane and insane, between wisdom and folly."
But let us proceed to an examination of the specific
charges made against Swedenborg by John Wesley.2
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
