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1236 NOTES TO VOLUME 11.
spurious facts based on hearsay, or originating in his own fancy.
Such spurious facts in his biography of Swedenborg, are the
following:
(2) On p. 159 he says, "During Swedenborg’s stay abroad, in
England and Holland, Locke’s doctrine made a deep impression on
him. He expressed also his admiration for this ’ celebrated man’
and for his ’golden philosophical work.’" The whole of this state
ment is a pure invention; for in the letters which Swedenborg wrote
home during his first stay in England and Holland, and which are
printed in Volume I of the present work, (pp. 206 to 233) which
was in Fryxell’s hand when he wrote the above statement, Locke’s
name is not mentioned once ; and the words which Fryxell attributes
to Swedenborg in connection with Locke, he never used, nor has
he expressed himself anywhere either affirmatively or negatively in
respect to Locke’s philosophy; wherefore also the following statement
of Fryxell is a mere assertion, "On account of the knowledge which
he had imbibed from Locke’s philosophical system . . . . doubts began
to arise in his mind as to the truth of several doctrines of faith
accepted by the Church."
(3) On p. 159 he states, "For a time he also admired Voltaire."
This again is a pure invention, as Swedenborg did not anywhere
either in his writings or by letter express himself concerning Voltaire.
To Cuno he said (Document 256, p. 453), "For many years I have
not thought of any thing in connection with Voltaire."
(4) On p. 164 he declares, "He treated with coldness and scorning
indifference the greatest scientific discoveries of Newton." And again
he says on p. 164. "He has but seldom mentioned Newton." The
real facts of the case are that in Document 39 Swedenborg declares,
"I study Newton daily, and am very anxious to see and hear him."
And when Prof. Elfvius wrote to him in Document 42, that he
would like to know, "What the learned mathematicians think about
Newton’s theory of the motion of the planets .... which seems to
be an absurdity," Swedenborg answered in Document 43, p. 219,
that "it would be criminal to doubt Newton’s Principia." These
documents were in Fryxell’s possession when he made the above
statement.
(5) On p. 167 he says of Swedenborg in 1736, "In connection
therewith he began studying Plotinus, perhaps also other writers of
the same sort, whose mysticism certainly contributed in a measure
to the direction his views afterwards took." That Swedenborg
studied Plotinus and other similar writers about 1736 or afterwards
is a pure invention. The name of Plotinus does not occur once in
the whole of Swedenborg’s writings ; and as to the assertion that
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