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698 ANECDOTES AND MISCELLANIES. [ Doc. 279.
Klopstock had impartially scanned Swedenborg’s course of
action , he would have seen , that his refusal to accede to
Klopstock’s request contributed to his honour, and not to his
dishonour, and, far from being a sign of pride and haughtiness,
was pointed out to him by duty. For, if he had really complied
with Klopstock’s request, he would have merited Jung-Stilling’s
reproof (see note 215), and lowered himself to the level of a
mere soothsayer. Besides, he would have squandered the
precious opportunities he owed to the service of his Lord, and
would have exposed himself to the still greater annoyance
of being visited by curious and inquisitive people, which in
the end would have interfered with the special object he had
in view. For if he had once granted such a request, to be
consistent it seems that he would have had to do it over again,
in the case of every other person sent to him by inquisitive
ladies ; when yet he had long ago declared that the spiritual
truths revealed to humanity through his instrumentality did
not require such merely natural signs, and that far from being
proved thereby, they shone in their own light. He was therefore
quite right in referring Klopstock to his writings, where, as he
frequently said to others, he would find an answer to every
thing; and he could do so with so much better grace, as he
had not written his works for money, but had made presents
of them in every direction, especially to the clergy and the
learned, and to public libraries ; whence Klopstock or his ladies
could have easily borrowed them in Copenhagen, without going
to the expense of purchasing them themselves. Klopstock’s
refusal, however, to have anything to do with Swedenborg’s
writings would certainly not testify, in the eyes of the latter
gentleman, to his love of the truth. Besides, Swedenborg could
not have failed to notice in the case of Klopstock the ab
sence of every reason that could possibly have justified his
application ; since Klopstock himself acknowledges , that he
acted as a mere tool in the hands of some ladies, who, for
all we know, were actuated only by curiosity. Under such
circumstances Swedenborg would, in our estimation, have been
really blamable, had he complied with Klopstock’s request,
or had he not made his compliance contingent upon a com
mand from above. Whether he did so in the present case,
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