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Doc. 275.] 657
SWEDENBORG AND THE QUEEN.
well pleased as when they exhibit something wonderful, take
an advantage of this to gain an extraordinary reputation.
Swedenborg was a man of learning, and very able in his pro
fession; he has always had the reputation of being an honest
man ; and I cannot comprehend by what means he obtained
.
the knowledge of what no one could know. However, I have
no faith in his having had a conference with my late brother.’ "
The Queen must have given special instructions to these
gentlemen not to communicate what they had heard to any
one ; for another member of the Academy, M. Pernety, who
was very intimate with one of these academicians, could not
extract the least information from him; as appears from what
follows:
L.
PERNETY’S 38 ACCOUNT.*
"The Queen having come to spend a few months in Berlin
after the death of her husband, some academicians, to whom
she did the honour of inviting them to her table, took the
liberty of asking her whether that report was true. She
avoided a reply, saying, ’Oh, with regard to the history of
the Countess de Marteville, that is certain ;’ but she said
nothing respecting the matter that concerned herself. I was
told this by M. M [ érian], one of these academicians, to whom
this princess afterwards sent some works of Swedenborg as a
present, and who most kindly lent them to me. I subse
quently procured them for myself, and the satisfaction I ex
perienced in reading them again, induced me to translate
some of them into French. "
* See Document 6, no. 26.
After the Queen’s visit to Berlin in 1772, her version of
her experience with Swedenborg seems gradually to have
gained ground in Sweden; for from that time we meet with
the following accounts from Swedish sources, all of which
agree in the statement that Swedenborg was commissioned by
42
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