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592 [Doc. 270.
REFUTATION OF FALSE REPORTS.
which he has hitherto filled with renown ; and as a token of
the satisfaction with which we look upon his long and faithful
services, we also most graciously permit him to retain for the
rest of his life the half of his salary as an Assessor."
It is difficult to understand how, in the face of this testi
mony received from the King of Sweden in 1747, and from
his colleagues at the College of Mines, who had daily an
opportunity of watching and observing him, a Swedish minister
of the Gospel could dare to publish a report that Swedenborg,
ever since 1743 had been insane; and indeed on the strength
of an occurrence which happened thirty or forty years before
he circulated this report ; and still more difficult is it to under
stand how his biographer who must have been acquainted
with the real state of the case could conscientiously endorse,
and publish as true, such testimony. Yet more surprising still
it seems that a professed historian, who ought to be accustomed
to weigh impartially contradictory evidence, can totally ignore
historical facts that happened in his own country, and prefer
to put faith in doubtful stories which originated abroad.
As Mr. White, however, in his " Life of Emanuel Sweden
borg," and Mr. And. Fryxell in his biography of Swedenborg
printed in Vol. XLIII of his "Berättelser ur Svenska Historien,"
(Stockholm, 1875, ) in which he repeatedly quotes from the
first volume of the "Documents respecting Swedenborg," fully
endorsed Mathesius’ account of Swedenborg, the former calling
it "plainly a straightforward and well-authenticated story"
(p. 132), and as this story has been accepted as such by
Dr. H. Maudsley in the "Journal of Mental Science," July, 1870
no. 70 ; we feel ourselves called upon to expose thoroughly its
untruthful character ; and first of all we propose to institute a
comparison between Mathesius’ statement in 1781 , as published
by Mr. Wesley in the "Arminian Magazine," and the version
of his statement in 1796, of which a translation is printed in
Mr. White’s "Life of Swedenborg" (pp. 129 to 132).
MATHESIUS IN 1781. MATHESIUS IN 1796.
§ 1. Swedenborg desired Mr. Swedenborg who was a
Godfcaring man,* wished to
to be recommended to a
* The words in italics have been omitted or altered in either of the
two accounts.
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