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Doc. 314.] 1031
SWEDENBORG AND ŒTINGER.
Providence prevailed upon my intrepid mind; for from my
sixth year already I entertained this sentiment: ’Suppose the
whole world should be destroyed, its ruins would not terrify
me’ (Horace, Ode 3, 3). Besides, Baron von Bernerdin, and
Baron von Leiningen advanced me the cost of printing, which
they promised to take out in books. The most urgent of all
motives, however, is this, that Fischer, the court-chaplain, com
plained to me that the philosophy of Plouquet [which was then
taught at Tübingen, ] did not lead to the Sacred Scripture,
stating that the philosophy of Weiss was better. I remem
bered the conversations I had formerly had with Plouquet on
the subject of Jacob Bohme ; and I saw clearly that the
self-revelation of God taught by the former had been taken
from Boehme, and embellished with Leibnitz’s philosophy. I
cared for the truth only. Mr. von Creuz, the privy-councillor,
attacked the philosophical thesis that there is no third between
the simple and the compound. This gentleman had been my
pupil in Hesse-Homburg, in 1734; and I saw that he had
surpassed his master, and that the most cogent ground for the
establishment of the Sacred Scripture, was a refutation of this
proposition ; for the certain and truthful words of God have
at all times been explained in an offensive manner.
"Your Serene Highness will please to take into con
sideration here, that this work has been written in the sight
of God with much thought, and that its object is to defend
literally even the foolishness of God. ’Be not afraid of those
who kill the body.’ This is my written defence in respect to
the motives.
The second point respecting the publication and the cen
sorial permission is as follows. I was well aware that this
is an extraordinary book, but, likewise, that it contained just
as little against the symbolical writings as the ’Chiliasm’ of
the great Bengel;183 even though a hundred Ernestis88 should
gnash their teeth over it, I considered myself bound in con
science to see it through the press, yet not to submit it to
the censorship of the theologians, but to Prof. Kies, the Dean
of the Philosophical Faculty. God Himself removed the ob
stacle, and induced him to write imprimatur on the book, for
the printer. Baron von Bernerdin paid for the printing, and
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