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Doc. 270.] MATHESIUS’ ACCOUNT OF SWEDENBORG. 599
"Another mark of falsehood in Mr. Wesley’s statement, and
which he derived from the Swedish clergyman Mathesius, is,
that it represents Swedenborg, while under the influence of
the fever and delirium, and attended by a physician, as being
removed to a lodging near Cold Bath Fields ; whereas there
is no reason for believing that he ever resided in that vicinity,
before he went to Shearsmith’s in the year 1769, in whose
house, during a second visit, he died, in 1772. Out of these
facts, that he did reside at Shearsmith’s, in Great Bath Street,
Cold Bath Fields, in 1769, and again in 1772, appears to
have been formed the notion that he also resided there in
1743 [1744], and it is actually said so in a manuscript copy
of the statement in the ’Arminian Magazine’ for 1781 , which
has been seen by the present writer. But this is impossible,
for Shearsmith was conversed with by the Writer of this note
in the year 1812, and died a few years afterwards, at about
the age of eighty-four : although, therefore, he did reside in
Cold Bath Fields for several years, he could not have had
Swedenborg for his lodger in the year 1743 [ 1744], being
himself at that time not fifteen years of age. Whether, there
fore, the date preferred for the imputed fever, be that of Mr.
Hartley [Document 259, no. 30], who fixes it at about the
year 1752 [see Document 270, p. 608] , or that of Mr. Wesley,
who declares absolutely that it occurred in 1743, Mr. Hartley’s
conclusion respecting it is equally applicable, namely, that he
’recovered from it after the manner of other men ;’ and ’
that
his writings both prior and subsequently to it entirely har
monize, and proceed upon the same principles with an exact
correspondence.’ These particulars appear highly worthy of
attention, and have never been noticed before."
The dilemma pointed out here by Mr. Noble, Mathesius
sought to avoid in his account of 1796, by stating that the
peruke-maker’s name into whose house Swedenborg removed
on leaving Brockmer’s house in 1743 was not Shearsmith, but
Caer; for he says that " Dr. Smith engaged apartments for
him with Mr. Michael Caer, wig maker, in Warner Street,
Cold Bath Fields."
There are several exceptions to be taken to this explanation ;
for in the first place Swedenborg was not in London in 1743 ,
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