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SWEDENBORG’S SKULL. 1203
"In the early part of 1823, a report passed through many of the
public papers of the day, concerning the skull of Swedenborg, which
was stated to have been abstracted from the vault of the Swedish
Church in Prince’s Square, Ratcliffe Highway, where he was buried,
and to have been preserved as a relic by one of his disciples till
his death, when it was again restored to its original situation in a
solemn and formal manner. The substance of this report, which
first appeared in the Times newspaper of March 31, 1823, is as
follows: Some time after the interment of Emanuel Swedenborg,
’one of his disciples,’ it is alleged, came over to England, and by
bribing the sexton of the Swedish Chapel, near Ratcliffe Highway,
obtained possession of the head of the departed saint’ (!!), with which
he decamped to his own country, where he preserved it as a precious
relic’ to the day of his death: when it coming into the possession
of his relatives, with some papers explaining to whom it had belonged,
they, ’ alarmed at the consequences which might follow such an un
hallowed violation of the tomb,’ transmitted it to this country, to
be restored to its original situation ; which, the story relates, was
accordingly done ’ with due solemnity, in the presence of the elders
of the Church.’
"The tale is certainly sufficiently ridiculous, and calculated, with
all who might believe it, to throw unmerited obloquy on the whole
body of the admirers of Swedenborg’s writings. Letters correcting
the misrepresentations were therefore immediately sent to several of
the papers in which the story had appeared, by Mr. Noble,237
Mr. Hawkins,239 and a friend who takes the signature of Philalethes ;
and it is but justice to the editors of the papers to say, that they
were inserted by most of them with the greatest readiness. As,
however, it is still probable that many may have seen the mis
representation, who have not seen the correction, it is proper to
mention it here.
"The facts, which gave rise to the fabrication, are briefly these :
About the year 1790, a foreign gentleman, * who held the absurd
tenets of the old sect of the Rosicrucians, and who, of course, though
he believed Swedenborg to have been a great philosopher, by no
means embraced his theological sentiments, became acquainted with
some of the admirers of Swedenborg’s writings, in London. Having
been invited one day to dine with a warm friend of those writings,
the foreigner after dinner affirmed, that such a philosopher as Sweden
Gustavus Broling in his Anteckningar under en Resa i England (Notes during a
journey in England), from 1797-1799 (pp. 47-51), relates that this foreign gentleman was
an American.
76*
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