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Doc. 309.] 833
THE MISSING MANUSCRIPTS.
B
further inquiry it was found that these letters had been distri
buted among his heirs, and that a large number of them had
been sold. By the kindness of one of the heirs, Mr. Thure A.
af Billbergh, the editor was shown several of these letters, and
in 1869 he succeeded in seeing the original volume in which
they had been bound. At the first glance he saw that this
was one of the volumes of the Swedenborg MSS. bound for
the Academy of Sciences by A. Nordensköld, which was proved
by the fact of a label marked "no. 52 " being still on the
back of the volume. On the strength of these indications the
volume in question was reclaimed from the heirs of Minister
Fåræus by the Academy of Sciences, and through the exertions
of Mr. T. A. af Billbergh, nearly the whole of the letters that
had been sold were delivered again to the Academy. Only
three of these letters have not found their way back to the
Academy, viz. the originals of Documents 223, 224, and 245, G.;
the second of these, viz. the original of Document 224 was
purchased by the authorities of the British Museum, by whom
it is carefully preserved.
....
Fåhræus, the Governor of that district, who is a twin brother of the Stats
råd Fåhræus, one of the King’s Ministers at Stockholm . . . . After some
interesting conversation on the subject of the New Church and its pro
spects, he desired the Secretary to call on his brother at Stockholm to see
his books and some MS. letters of Swedenborg, which had come to him
as a descendant of Dr. Beyer, the friend of Swedenborg" (p. 14). In a
subsequent part of his report (p. 15) the Secretary continues :
"Here (at Stockholm) the Secretary met the son ofthe Minister Fåhræus,275
who brought a list of all of Swedenborg’s works in his father’s possession,
and also of twenty original letters from Swedenborg to Dr. Beyer and to
Augustus Ahlströmer between 1765 and 1771, and made an appointment
to call on his father, by whom he was kindly received, and all the books
and MS. letters were shown to him. On his application on behalf of the
Society , the Minister placed the letters in the hands of Mr. Swedbom,
[librarian of the Academy,] to have two copies made-one for the Society,
and one to be placed in the Archives of the Academy of Sciences. The
copy for the Society has since been received , and it proves that these
letters have been already translated and published, though not with perfect
accuracy."
53
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