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1238 NOTES TO VOLUME II.
Fryxell’s part, for which he does not quote any authority; but in
support of the second assertion he quotes the "Spiritual Diary,”
nos. 4321 and 323. The first of these passages in the original
reads as follows, "It was a certain devil who believed that he was
the very devil, who deceived Adam and Eve, according to the
common opinion." And the second passage, "There was a certain
one who believed that he was the devil who seduced Adam and
Eve." Swedenborg therefore reports this as the opinion of another,
but Fryxell by a strange obliquity of vision attributes this opinion
to Swedenborg himself. As to evil spirits being cast from heaven
before the creation, this is one of Fryxell’s own ideas which he seeks
to fasten on Swedenborg, in order to be able to raise against him
the charge of self-contradiction.
Fourthly, from a professional historian we expect that he will
avoid loose and inaccurate statements. The reverse is the case in
Fryxell’s Life of Swedenborg, which from beginning to end abounds
with loose and inaccurate statements, as appears from what follows:
(10) On p. 149 he classes Berzelius among those who regard
Swedenborg as a "fanatic, an arch-fantastic (erkefantast), a fool, and
an insane person," when yet Berzelius, before the Scandinavian
Scientific Association in 1842 makes most honourable mention of
Swedenborg, and says that he was the first "who made genuine
geological examinations" in Sweden, and in his letters to Dr. J. J.
Garth Wilkinson uses the following strong language in his favour:
"I am surprised at the great knowledge displayed by Swedenborg
on a subject [ the Animal Kingdom’ ] that a professed metallurgist
would not have been supposed to have made an object of study,
and in which, as in all he undertook, he was in advance of his age."
And again he says, "I hope the anatomists and physiologists of our
day will profit by this work, both for the sake of extending their
ideas, and of rendering justice to the genius of Swedenborg."
(11) On p. 151 he declares that "Swedenborg was twice saved
as a child from a burning house." Only once was Bishop Swedberg’s
house burnt down during Swedenborg’s childhood, viz. in 1698, while
he was professor in Upsal. When the bishop’s house was burnt down a
second time in Skara, in 1712, Swedenborg was in England. Besides,
it is not mentioned in any document that Swedenborg was then in
danger of his life.
(12) On p. 155 Fryxell alludes to a letter which Swedenborg
wrote from Greifswalde; the letter in question (Document 46) is
dated from Rostock and not from Greifswalde.
(13) On p. 156 he states that the Daedalus Hyperboreus was
published by the newly formed Society of Science in Upsal, when
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