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DOCUMENT 279.
KLOPSTOCK’S VISIT TO SWEDENBORG. *
"Swedenborg was once in Copenhagen. Our ladies in
sisted that I should go and call on him; for I myself had no
interest in seeing him: he was no object of curiosity to me.
Who is not acquainted from history with persons like him,
ruined by pride and arrogance? I missed it with him in
the beginning by not expressing any desire for purchasing his
expensive volumes in quarto. I, nevertheless , entered upon
the subject that had brought me to him, and requested him
to enter into a conversation with one of my departed friends.
In a tone which was still more tiresome than the style in
which he expressed himself, he said, ’If His Royal Majesty,
the present King of Denmark, Frederic V,’ (I do not add a
single word), ’had ordered me most graciously with his de
parted consort, Her Majesty Queen Louisa, to-’ I inter
rupted him saying, ’Unless a person whose friends are in the
other world happens to be a prince, Mr. Swedenborg does
not deign to speak with him.’ I left him; when he said, ’As
soon as you go, I shall again be in the society of spirits.’ ’In
that case,’ I replied, ’I should be wrong not to hasten away ;
for I do not wish to deprive you by my presence of such good
company.’"
Dr. Immanuel Tafel in commenting on this account says,
"It is strange how much man is blinded by passion. If
* The above account of this visit is contained in the "Berlinische Monats
schrift," Vol. XI, 1788, p . 516 ; also in Döring’s "Life of Klopstock," 1825,
p. 242 et seq.; likewise in the edition of his "Collected works," published
under the editorship of H. Schmidlin, Vol. I. 1839, p. 357.
+ "Sammlung von Urkunden," &c., Part. IV, p. 120 et seq.
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