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JOHN WESLEY. 1213
and accepted the place of a minister in Savannah. In 1738 he
returned to England, where he was interested in the formation of
Moravian settlements, especially that of Fetter Lane, where he
became acquainted with Brockmer. He soon separated, however,
from the Moravians ; and in connection with Whitfield became in
strumental in establishing the great community of the Methodists.
Being endowed with a considerable power of will and a prominent
faculty for administration, he soon organized his adherents into a
compact church, which before long separated from the Church of
England.
In 1770 Wesley seems to have first become acquainted with the
writings of Swedenborg. For in the printed "Extracts from his
Journals," Part XV, (p. 84), we read under the date of February
28, 1770, "I sat down to read and seriously consider some of the
writings of Baron Swedenborg. I began with huge prejudice in his
favour, knowing him to be a pious man, one of strong understanding,
of much learning, and one who thoroughly believed in himself. But
I could not hold out long. Any one of his visions puts his real
character out of doubt. He is one of the most ingenious, lively,
entertaining madmen that ever set pen on paper. But his waking
dreams are so wild, so far remote both from Scripture and common
sense, that one might as easily swallow the stories of Tom Thumb,
or Jack the Giant Killer."
In 1771 he wrote under the date of December 8 (Part XVI,
p. 49), " I read a little more of that strange book, Baron Sweden
borg’s Theologia Cœlestis. It surely contains many excellent things.
Yet I can’t but think, the fever he had twenty years ago, when he
supposes he was introduced into the society of angels’ really intro
duced him into the society of lunatics. But still there is something
noble, even in his ravings :
"His mind has not yet lost
"All its original brightness, but appears.
"Majestic, though in ruins."
2
All this Wesley wrote for publication; for his Journal was then
regularly published. His private sentiments about Swedenborg,
however, and those which he communicated to his most intimate
friends are contained in Document 268. These sentiments are too
well authenticated, to be disproved by the two preceding extracts.
Still, in course of time, the ideas with which he identified himself
in public on the subject of Swedenborg, completely swallowed up
his private sentiments on this subject, so that in April, 1779, he
made the following entry in his Journal (Part XVIII, p. 99), "In
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