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Doc. 276.] ATTEMPTS AT EXPLANATION. 683
prayer. The young aspirant informed him after some time
that he had scrupulously attended to everything, when the old
gentleman addressed him thus : ’ Very well, my son, let us see ;
sit down, close your eyes, and abstract everything that has
any connection with this sublunary world ; I shall do the same
thing myself.’ The would-be recipient was docile to the end;
but nevertheless became impatient , when nothing appeared
to him, from the corner of one of his eyes he took a peep
at the inspired man ; there he noticed that his chest was
agitated, as if he had a difficulty in breathing. After the
lapse of a full hour the old gentleman opened his eyes, and
asked the young man what he had seen . Alas, nothing.
What, did you not see this, and that ? My dear friend, I
knew it before, you are not fit to be admitted into familiar
intercourse with the heavenly spirits.
"On the 19th of August, 1759, when Swedenborg returned
from London, whither he went from time to time to print new
books, he said, on landing at Gottenburg, that on this very
day there was a great conflagration in Stockholm in the
Södermalm, and that his house, which was situated there, would
be preserved. A few days afterwards a confirmation of this
statement was received in Gottenburg.
"So far extends the narrative of my correspondent. I shall
be much gratified, if it amuse you for a little while. I beg
you to allow me to add some reflections, which I sometimes
make on this subject.
"The philosophers of our own century and some of the pre
ceding centuries, reject everything which is beyond their com
prehension, and which they cannot demonstrate ; so that at
last they arrive at a point when they regard as mere fables
the holiest mysteries, the foundations of the Christian religion,
which are all infinitely above the sphere of man. But is
it reasonable to reject everything that we cannot demonstrate
or comprehend? However enlightened our century may be
by the discoveries which are daily made, by the progress in
experimental physics, and especially in chemistry, to which
may be added that new system of metaphysics, the reading
of which has been made so very interesting by Voltaire, and
which he himself has illustrated in an infinite number of ways ;
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