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Doc. 274.] 641
THE LOST RECEIPT.
embellishments, printed by us in italics, which impair some
what the documentary character of the account.
Mr. v. E.’s testimony is contained in a letter addressed
to a clergyman in 1775, and published by Baron von Bibra,
Canon at Fulda, and editor of the "Journal von und für
Deutschland," in the volume for 1790 (nos. 1 to 6, pp. 33, &c.).
G.
TESTIMONY OF MADAME DE MARTEVILLE’S SECOND HUSBAND.
"Most Reverend, most learned, and most respected Sir,
"An indisposition deprives my wife of the
pleasure, most reverend Sir, of answering your favour, wherefore
the pleasant duty devolves upon me, of furnishing you with a true
and veritable statement of how the history happened, in which
you seem to be so deeply interested. As all true occurrences
become mixed with false accounts so also it has been with
this. The facts of the case are as follows:
"About a year after the decease of M. de Marteville’ my wife
thought of visiting the notorious and celebrated Mr. Sweden
borg, who was then her neighbour in Stockholm, in order to
make the acquaintance of such a strange wonder of humanity.
She spoke of her desire to see him to several ladies, and they
agreed to form a party on a certain day. All the ladies were
admitted. Mr. Swedenborg received them in a very fine garden,
and in a magnificent saloon which was vaulted, and in the
centre of the ceiling had a sky-light, by which, as he said, he
frequently conversed with his friends, viz. the spirits.*
"Among other things my wife asked him, whether he had
been acquainted with M. de Marteville? which he denied, as
during this gentleman’s stay at the Swedish court, he had
been almost constantly in London. †
* This is evidently fanciful, as Swedenborg had no magnificent saloon
with a sky-light, as represented by the narrator.
M. de Marteville, as we learn from Document 271, p. 617, had
been in Stockholm since the year 1752. Swedenborg was in Stockholm
from the middle of 1750 (see Document 213, where he ordered seeds from
41
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