Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Doc. 290. ] 721
ATTERBOM’S ANECDOTE.
writings, assuring them that ’ everything contained therein is
strictly true.’ If they objected that they could not possibly be
lieve this, he answered, ’I do not wonder at it,’ and therewith
changed the topic of conversation. The above account also
shows, that he soon relapsed again into his usual silence in
respect to the phenomena of his interior world. ”
What are we to think of this account ? Can it be strictly
true? A friend from Sweden informed us that Atterbom’s
friends did not consider this story altogether trustworthy.
Without pretending to deny the truth of the whole story , we
wish to call attention to the following points, which are not
borne out by the testimony concerning Swedenborg which we
know to be reliable.
First, Swedenborg’s lodgings in London were exceedingly
modest (see Document 265, no. 8), and did not contain a
"saloon" of the kind mentioned by the Finnish gentleman ; nor
did Swedenborg have a "friendly old man-servant," but was
waited upon by the " maid" of the Shearsmiths (see Docu
ment 264, no. 10).
Secondly, When Swedenborg’s spiritual sight was opened,
he was as to his natural body generally in a deep trance (see
Document 5, no. 25, and also Document 257 , p. 490) ; and he
is nowhere else described as walking about in that state and
entertaining his spiritual visitors in the natural world.
Thirdly, Swedenborg sometimes, when in a spiritual state,
soliloquized, and especially when in temptation he is said to
have spoken freely in his vernacular tongue (see Document 5,
nos. 24, 29, and also Document 267, no. 5) ; yet his con
versation was like that of some one speaking in sleep, his sphere
of consciousness being altogether in the spiritual world, and not
in the natural and in the spiritual world at the same time, as
related in Atterbom’s anecdote. For, according to Atterbom,
Swedenborg must have seen, at the same time, the Finnish
gentleman in the natural world and Virgil in the spiritual
world, and thus his spiritual and his natural eyes must have
been open at the same time; since he is said to have " beckoned
with a friendly nod" to the former, while he made "obliging
speeches" to Virgil, and " bowed him out of his room."
46
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
