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1176 NOTES TO VOLUME II
.
NOTE 222.
BENEDICT CHASTANIER.
"Mr. Chastanier," says Henry Servanté in a letter addressed to
Mr. James Glen, dated June 1, 1806,* "is a native of France, and
studied surgery and pharmacy in the Hotel Dieu at Paris, where
he resided many years ; after which he came to England, and used
to visit the society of readers in the Temple. He has been a
zealous recipient, and instrumental in publishing many of the works
in French and English ; he has been thrice married, but through
indiscretion has experienced many unpleasant vicissitudes in the
natural world, and is at this time in a very languishing state."
Whether Chastanier became acquainted with the doctrines of the
New Church in England or France is not known with certainty.
According to C. Lenning in his Encyclopädie der Freimaurerei
(Encyclopædia of Freemasonry), and R. C. Acerrellos in his work
entitled Die Freimaurerei (Freemasonry), Benedict Chastanier and
other friends of the New Church in France formed even during
Swedenborg’s lifetime a society of Theosophic Illuminati (Illu
minés theosophes), with seven degrees. This society was organized
into a kind of Masonic lodge in the spirit of the New Jerusalem.
Dr. A. Kahl in his work entitled Nya Kyrkan, &c. (Part IV, p. 83),
whence we derive this information, adds, "Chastanier, who imported
this new order into England, thereupon issued a call to the Free
masons in which he invites them as friends of truth and humanity
to make common cause with the receivers of the doctrines of the
New Jerusalem, and to work with them for the attainment of a
common goal. In his ’Plan for a New Jerusalemite Journal’ (Plan
d’un Journal Novi-Jérusalémite) in pointing to the Exegetic-Philan
thropic Society of Stockholm, he says among other things, ’Would
that for the good of mankind the shhole earth were covered by
societies of the same nature ; then we should soon see the golden
age return among men, of which we announce now the dawn. You,
Masons, who are free and open-hearted, and whom I have the
honour to call my brethren, your respectable society is made for
the very purpose of emulating them! More than ever you search
now after the truth ; witness the circulars which the Great Orient
(
Grand Orient) of Paris sends out in every direction. Truth presents
itself to you. The works of Swedenborg develop it for you in all
those emblems, symbols, and figures, of which the exterior only is
* See "Monthly Observer" for 1857, p. 419.
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