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738 ANECDOTES AND MISCELLANIES. [ Doc. 293.
Swedenborg’s own private papers and MSS., there is not a
single iota about Freemasonry, nor any note whatever about
his having visited any Masonic lodge in the above places.
Of a like nature are further assertions which Mr. Beswick
makes in the sequel to his book, about additional visits which
Swedenborg is said to have made to Masonic lodges in other.
countries ; e. g. where he declares (p. 44) that " Swedenborg
spent much of his spare time in Paris during 1737, with his
Masonic acquaintances ;" and where he adds the following story:
"On December 27, when the brethren were assembled at the
festival of St. John, in the Rue de Deux Ecus, at Paris, several
arrests were made, and some of the officers were imprisoned .
Among the arrested was Swedenborg, who had been invited
to be present. But being only a visitor and a foreigner, he
was released and admonished. He was at once placed under.
police surveillance, which gave him so much annoyance that,
on March 12th., 1738, he deemed it prudent to quit Paris.
A confirmation of these arrests will be found in the Acta
Latomorum, sub anno 1737.”
We are ready to admit that the above story is correct,
so far as the arrest of certain members of the Masonic frater
nity is concerned, but the share attributed to Swedenborg we
declare to be false, on this ground, that of his stay in Paris
from September 3, 1736 to March 12, 1738, Swedenborg him
self has kept a minute account in the Journal of his Travels
(Document 206, pp. 91 to 102), and that, while he mentions
several Swedish gentlemen on whom he called in Paris, in
addition to his bankers, he nowhere speaks of any Masonic
acquaintances, nor does he mention his "having been arrested,
and placed under police surveillance," which if true, he cer
tainly would not have failed to record in a private account of
his journeys.
Of a similar fictitious nature are all the other visits to
Masonic lodges of which Mr. Beswick speaks in the sequel to
his book.
The whole subject of the relation of Swedenborg and the
New Church to Freemasonry has been minutely inquired into
by Dr. A. Kahl, Dean of Lund, in his work entitled : "Nya
Kyrkan och dess inflytelse på Theologiens Studium i Swerige"
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