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720 [Doc. 290.
ANECDOTES AND MISCELLANIES.
and thoughts lie between that time and the present. But
Virgil’s unexpected visit awakened many youthful recollections ;
and as I found him so very polite and communicative, I resolved
to improve the opportunity by asking him for information on
some circumstances, which no one could explain better than
himself. He promised also to visit me soon again. But let
us now talk about something else. It is so long since I met
any one from Sweden, and especially a young academician.
Come in and sit down with me. What can I do for you?
But first of all tell me all about home, both things old and
new.’
" After this,’ continued the witness and reporter of the
above to a familiar friend, from whose lips I heard the whole
story, after this, during the whole of my intercourse with
this wonderful old man, whom I afterwards visited at various
times, I heard nothing extraordinary from him; except proofs
of his extraordinary learning in all branches of human science
and investigation. Never again did he touch upon anything
supernatural, anything visionary. However disturbed in mind
he appeared to me at first, I left him with a feeling of the
deepest gratitude, as well for his highly instructive conversation,
as for the constant benevolence he evinced towards me, both
in word and deed ; and I also left him with a sense of the
greatest admiration, which, however, was blended with a feeling
of regret that, on a certain point, a screw was either loose or
had dropped out of the head of this venerable man. "
Atterbom himself continues, "This anecdote is remarkable
because it presents Swedenborg at a juncture when a visitor
called upon him in the usual way, while he was entertaining
a spiritual visitor. A circumstance which explains why he,
who ordinarily was not at all communicative on such matters,
taken here by surprise and under the full influence of Virgil’s
amiability, forgot completely how strange it must have appeared
to his young visitor. Otherwise he observed strict silence on
the subject of his spirit-visions ; and especially in conversing
with such as he found of a profane disposition, or simple in
their judgment. Gjörwell’s description of his conversation
with Swedenborg furnishes a proof of this. When such persons
endeavoured to cross-examine him, he directed them to his
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