Published to mark the Utree hundredth anniversary

in 1988 of the birUt of Emanuel Swedenborg.

The writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

are published by:

The Swedenborg Society.

Swedenborg House. 20-21 Bloomsbury Way. London WelA 2TH

The Swedenborg Foundatioll

139 t:ast 23rd Street. New York. N.Y.lOOlO. U.S.A.

1
A SWEDENBORG SCRAPBOOK

SEMINAR BOOKS. LONDON.

A Swedenborg Scrapbook. Brian Kingslake

© Copyright. Seminar Books 1986
Published by The Missionary Society of the New Church
Swedenborg House, 20 Bloomsbury Way,
London WC1A 2TH
Distributed by New Church House
34 John Dalton Street. Manchester M2 6LE
Set in 9/11 Benguiat by Gatehouse Wood Ltd, Sevenoaks
Printed in England by John Whittingdale Ltd, Bishops Stortford
Designed by G. Roland Smith

First published 1986

ISBN 0 907295 16 9

Picture Acknowledgements

The pllblishers grateflilly acknowledge help

in the provision of pictllres from:
The Author, The National Missionary Board of the
General Conference of the New Church, The Swedenborg
Society, and Miss Kathleen Prince.

2
A SWEDENBORG SCRAPBOOK

Brian Kingslake
Part 1 Birth and Family Surname
Part Il The Young Emanuel Swedberg
Part III Assessor of Mines, Physicist, Anatomist
Part IV The Dawn of Spiritual Consciousness
Part V The Homestead
Part VI A Pilgrimage
Part VII Communicating with Spirits
The Last Judgment
Part VIII The Writings of the New Church
New-Church Day
Part IX Amsterdam Interlude
Part X London Postlude
Wesley and Swedenborg
Part XI Death and Funeral
The Skull
Part XII ln Eternity
Addendum Chronological Table

4
A Swedenborg Scrapbook
INTRODUCTION
This is not just another biography of Emanuel
Swedenborg. There are plenty of excellent
ones already avaUable. (Over a hundred are
Iisted in Uyde's Bibliography.) ln fact, much of
what 1 have written here takes for granted that
the reader is fairly famiIiar with the detaUs of
Swedenborg's lite and work. If he isn't, 1 would
refer hint to "The Swedenborg Epie" by Cyriel
Odhner Sigstedt - an incredible achievement
of biography, packed full of facts and
information. Or to Signe Toksvig's equally
brilliant study, "Emanuel Swedenborg,
Scientist and Mystie", which specializes on bis
inteUectual and psycbic development. Both of
these fine works have recenUybeen reprinted,
the first in England and the other in America.
For myself, 1 regard this Iitue Scrapbook as a
companion to my own small volume:
"Swedenborg Explores the Spiritual
Dimension:" published by Seminar Books,
London, in 1981 •
What 1 have done here is to shine a spoUight
on a number of selected aspects and incidents
of Swedenborg's lite which have particularly
5 Brian Kingslake
interested me, and made my comments on
them. 1 began with the notes 1 made for an
address to the Swedenborg Society in London
in celebration of Swedenborg's birtbday in
January 1980 after which several people asked
me to write them down on paper. As 1 typed
out my notes, the material grew in bulk, as
other points came to the forefront of my mind
(but aU scrapbooks have a tendency to
increase in bulk).
The resuIt is that Parts l, Il, and III have
turned out to be largely biographicaI, as 1
traced bis development from birth to the age
of 60 when he attained to full spiritual
illumination and began to write the "Arcana
Coelestia". If you are already familiar with this
material, you can leap-frog over those parts
(uniess you want to rcad them as a refresher­
course) and begin with Part IV "The
Uomestead", or Part V "'A Pilgrimage." AlI the
rest of the book is non-chronological - a kind
of Iiterary montage. And it is these latter
pages that have given the book its name: A
SWEDENBORG SCRAPBOOK.
1 could, of course, have covered a great deal
more ground than 1 have done. Perhaps 1 shaU
do, one day. But 1 believe that the points 1
have touched on here wiJJ enable the student
of Swedenborg to get a c1earer view of the
mind and achievements of that remarkable
Servant of the Lord. 1 hope so, anyway.
A section From the original church register where
the birth oF Emanuel Swedenborg is recorded.
The entry reads as follows:

p.178

PARENTES. 1688 PATRINI INFANTES DIES BAPT.

Mag. Jesj'ler. Hr. Hofrad Nordenhjelm. Emanuel,

1
Swedberg. F. Maria Sylvia. fodd d. 29 Jan. d. 2 Febr.
H. Sara Behm. Gen. Auditeuren Fahlstrôm.
F. Ingrid Behm.

Hr. Johan Rhenstierna. ' w'

F. Marg. Zachariae d·r.

PARENTS GOD-PARENTS CHILDREN DAY OF BAPTISM.

Dr. Jesper. Mr. COllncillor Nordenlljelm. Emanuel, February 2
Swedberg. Mrs. Maria Sylvia. Born Jan. 29
Wife: Sarah Aliditor General Fahlstrôm.
Behm. Mrs. Ingrid Behm.
Mr. Johan Rhenstierna.
Mrs. Marg. Zachariae
1
daughter.

6
The CounciIIor l'Iordenhjelm who is registered as the first or the
sponsors, was Pror. Anders Nilson Nordenhjelm (1663-1694), at
the lime instructor to the erown prince (Charles XII).
l'ru Maria Sylvia was the wire or the officialing clergyman, Pastor
Matthias Wagner, who was the rector or St James and chaplain to
the court. She is entered here under her maiden name, as was the
custom with ladies or the nobility who had married outside their
rank.
Auditor-General Fahlstrôm (Baron Ludwig fahlstrôm, 1655-
1721) was a childhood rriend or Jesper Swedberg; he afterwards
became governor or the province or Westmanland,
l'ru Ingrid Behm was the sister or Sarah Behm, Emanuel's
mother, and widow or Major Erland Erling.
Uerr Johan Wilhelm Rhenstiema (1659-1692) was a cousin or
Emanuel's mother, and was a chamberlain at the court or the
QlIeen-dowager, Hedwig Eleanora. His sister, Anna Maria, married
Jesper Swedberg's eider brother, Peter, who, on being ennobled,
assllmed the name Schônstrôm.
l'ru Margareta Zacharias daughter (TroiIa) was the dallghter or
Zacharias Unosson Troillls, burgomaster or fahilln, and wire or
Mikael J Strômberg. a merchant in Stockholm. She was probably
one or the childhood rriends or Emanuel's parents.
The entry itselr was written by Jonas Anderson, the c1erk or St.
James.

7 Emanuel Swedenborg.
Some Abbreviations

A.C =Arcana Coelestia

A.E. =Apocalypse Explained
A.R. =Apocalypse Revealed
B.E. =Brief Exposition of the Doctrines
E.U. =Earths in the Universe
N.D. =Neavenly Doctrine
Intercourse =Intercourse between Soul and Body
L.J. =Last Judgment
L.J.Cont. =Last Judgment (Continued)
L.J. Post. =Last Judgment (Posthumous)
N.C. =New Church
N.J. =New Jerusalem
5.0. =Spiritual Diary
T.C.R. =True Christian Religion

8
PART 1. BIKTU AND FAMILY SURNAME.
On January 29th 1980 1 addressed the Swedenborg
Society in London. 1 began my remarks with the
following resounding statement:
"fxactly 292 years ago today, on January 29th 1688,
cheers rose from the throats of many, while cannons
boomed and flashed over the snow of Stockholm, to
celebra te the birth of fmanuel Swedenborg. H
Then, after a few moments hesitation, 1 corrected
myself:
"WelJ, actually the cannon-shots and rejoicing were to
celebra te the christening of the Iittle princess U1rica
f1eanora, who happened to have been born at about
the same time as Swedenborg! She, of course, was in
the royal palace, whereas he was in the army barracks,
his father being the Regimental Chaplain. H
"And in fact:' 1 went on, "it wasn't exactly 292 years aga
today, because the date January 29th in 1688 was
calculated according to the Julian Calendar, whereas
our present dating is according to the Gregorian
Calendar. Prior to 1600 the Popes added or subtracted
days and years to or From the calendar, as seemed
necessary according to their lunar reckonings; but
Gregory XIII settled the matter once and for ail in 1582
by dropping I l days. (September 2 was followed by
September 14). Sweden changed gradually to the
Gregorian dating round about 1740, whereas England
did so by act of Parliament in 1752. So, by the dating
now universally adopted by the Western World (barring
questions of Daylight Savings, etc!) Swedenborg's
birthday would fall on February 9th.
Even then 1 had not corrected ail the errors of my
original statement. The child whose destiny we are
considering was not named Emanuel Swedenborg but
Emanuel Svedber~ his father being the Rev. Jesper
Svedberg.
Let us devote a page or two of our Scrapbook to this
matter of his surname. Jesper had adopted the name
Svedberg in his college days, in accordance with the
custom ofthe land-owning classes to take on the name
oftheir ancestral home. His ancestral home was a farm
named Sveden near Fahlun in Dalarna (Sved means
H
"burnt land , From the Swedish svedja, to burn.)
Jesper himself had presumably been born "Jesper
Danielson,H after his father Daniel. It had been the
custom in the working classes From time Immemorial
for the child to take on the father's first-name and add
H
"sonH (if a boy) or "dotter (if a girl). Until recently it has
been the same in lceland, where you get "Magnusson or
Magnusdotte~;and it used to be the same in England
where you got "Johnson" or "Richardson My father was
H
•
Martin, so 1would have been "Brian Martinson·, and my
daughter Margaret would be "Margaret Briandotter. HWe
find the same, of course, in the Bible, where Ben or Bar
9
means ~son of* (Simon Bar-Jonas, Nathaniel Bar­
Tholomew).
Consider Jesper's male ancestry. His great-great­
grandfather was named Otto. Otto's son Nils was called
Nils Otteson. His son Isaak was Isaak Nilson, and so on.
otto
Nils Otteson

Isaak Nilson

Daniel Isaakson
Jesper Danielson

Emanuel ...7
By this reckoning, therefore, little Emanuel would have
been named Emanuel Jesperson. Our Church wOüld
not be referred to as Swedenborgian, but Jespersonian:
and the Swedenborg Society would be the Jesperson
Society!
This manner ofnaming children did not operate among
the professional classes or the nobility. So, wh en Daniell
Isaakson made a bit of money by reopening an old
copper mine at Sveden, and sent Jesper to University,
Jesper assumed the name Svedberg or Swedberg - a
name adopted by his children. (When they pronounce il,
it sounds Iike ~SVEE-RD BEY.)

10 Jesper Svedberg, Swedenborg's father.

While on the subject ofnames, l'II tum to a later page of
my Scrapbook. Rev. Jesper Svedberg had risen to
become Bishop of Skara - a very important position.
IMeanwhile, King Charles XH was killed in battle, and the
Iittle ginl 1 spoke of - Princess Ulrika Eleanora - was
crowned Queen. She started off her brief reign by
ennobling 150 of her subjects, including the families of
most of the bishops, probably to pack the House of
Nobles in support of her rather shaky right to the
throne, which should really have gone to the son of her
deceased sister Hedwig - her nephew Charles
Frederick. So, in May 1719, the Svedberg family name
was changed to SWEDENBORG - the "en" in the middle
being the definite article, and "borg" (meaning castle)
instead of "berg" (meaning hill). Altogether a more
aristocratie name!
The Queen did not, of course, ennoble the bishops
themselves, as they were on a parity with noblemen in
their own right. There were four "houses" in the Diet or
Government: (1) Nobles, (2) Clergy, (3) Burghers, and
(4) Peasants. Bishops, being automatically members of
the House of Clergy, could not enter the House of
Nobles. Their families, however, were commoners,
unless specifically ennobled. So, when Bishop
Svedberg's family were given the noble name of
Swedenborg, Jesper retained his old name of Svedberg,
perhaps slightly changing it to SWEDBERG.

11 Sara Behm. Swedenborg's mother.

For the Bishop to adopt "Swedenborg" would have been does the professor think of our Iittle plan?" He was
tantamount to admiUing that he was not a nobleman surprised. "What Iittle p'lan?" "The one you wrote to me
already! Thus there were different surnames for father about." "What did 1write to you about?" "Aren't we to be
and family, for husband and wife. bride and groom tomorrow?" "Ohl You must be Sara
To go back now to the Svedberg family in the Bergia?" They shook hands, and soon were in a loving
Regimental Barracks in Stockholm in 1688. Emanuel's embrace - with mutual pleasure and contentment.
true mother was Jesper's first wife, Sara Behm. Sara Bergia became a good mother to Emanuel. Later,
Emanuel was her third child, and alter him in due in the spiritual world, he met his two mothers, and loved
course came six more, making nine altogether. She them both equally. Her shares in several iron mines
then died of a fever, aged only .30. Her eldest child Albert brought wealth to the family, making Emanuel
died with her. leaving Anna, the eldest daughter (who financially independent, and able to publish the
eventually married Bishop Benzelius) and Emanuel, the Writings at his own expense. We see the hand of
eldest surviving son, aged 8. Alter them were Hedwig, Providence in this.
Daniel, Eliezer, Catharina, Jesper (Jr) and Margaretha.
Jesper (Sem) had now .been appointed by King Charles
XI as Dean and Professor ofTheology at the University of
Uppsala, sorne 40 miles north of Stockholm. Naturally
he had to marry again, to get a new mother for his eight
children; and alter careful consideration his choice fell
on another Sara - Sara Bergia - a wealthy widow
without children (most eligible!). He had never met her,
but she had been represented to him as being of an
amiable disposition.
Jesper tells his love-story in his manuscript
autobiography. He arrived by coach in Stockholm two
9ays before the wedding, and was shown into a large
room where a lady was seated alone, and he was lelt
with her. He greeted her politely and they spoke
together for a while, no doubt discussing the weather
and the price of herring-roes. At last she asked; 'What
12

PART Il. TUE YOUNG EMANUEL SWEDBEKG.
Of Emanuel's upbringing we know Iittle. Jesper, in his
thousand-page autobiography, is obsessed only with
himself, and says IiUle or nothing about his offspring.
Emanuel himselftells us that he used to play at ~holding
his breath" for long periods during moming and
evening prayers, as an aid to deep meditation - a
technique known in Yoga, and developed by
Swedenborg later to an extraordinary degree for
inducing his spiritual consciousness. (He says he cou Id
hold his breath ~for a short hour.") Th'is fits in with bio­
feedback experiments in the U.S.A., slowing down the
brain-waves to enter the so-called ~Alpha" state of
psychic awareness, and, slower still, the ~Theta" state of
self-hypnosis and coma.
At the age of eleven, Emanuel entered Uppsala
Academy or University (the normal age) and studied
science and mathematics in the Department of
Philosophy. (The other three departments were:
Theology, Medicine and Law. His father had the chair of
Theology.) The degree he worked for was ~Master of
Philosophy: It involved a long series of tests, which
might cover several years. We have his first ~Exercise" ­
a selection of maxims from the Latin authors, with his
own comments, which he ~defended" before his
examiners in the summer of 1709, at the age of 21. It
appears that he did not proceed further towards his
degree, so that in fad he left the University without any
formai academic qualifications, intending to complete
his education abroad. (This fad is not generally
realized.)
His father Jesper was now Bishop of Skara - a
magnificent cathedral situated in central Sweden about
midway between Stockholm and Gothenburg. His
residence was an estate just beyond the eastern
suburbs of Skara, called Brunsbo, From which,
nowadays, you can see the cathedral, a grain silo, and a
water tower. (When we visited the estate, 1 was told
these were symbolic of the three principall needs of
man: food, drink and religion!)
Emanuel, alter leaving Uppsala, joined his family at
Brunsbo, expeding to depart at once for England - to
complete his education overseas. But Sweden was at
war with France and Denmark (Charles XII was always at
war with somebody!) and the seas were closed. So
Emanuel had to kick his heels for a whole year with his
father and six younger brothers and sisters. With them
also was the young Dr Johan Moraeus, their cousin and
tutor, whose daughter Elisabet later married Carl
Linnaeus the great botanist. (Many years afterwards,
Swedenborg met Moraeus in the Spiritual World, but his
face had become so beautiful that Swedenborg scarcely
recognized him!) The two young men explored the
countryside around Skara, searching for fossils. They
unearthed an enormous bone, which Swedenborg
thought was the thigh-bone of an antedeluvian giant. It
13
14
was sent to Uppsala for identification, and was found to Stockholm aJone - a third of the entire population. At
be thejaw-bone of a whale, though no one could explain this very inauspicious time, in April 1710, a sea captain
how a whale got into central Sweden! It is now in the friend of the Svedbergs decided to attempt the voyage
university museum, called ~Swedenborg's Whale
N
• to England from Gothenburg in a small sailingship, and
Meanwhile, bubonic plague stalked through Sweden offered to take Emanuel with him. The young man's
from Turkey. Twenty thousand people died in sudden departure caused some ill-feeling between him
 15
and the famous civil engineer Christopher Polhammer,
who had just been persuaded to take him on as an
apprentice!

Uppsala. Swedenborg allended the University

here. where his father held the chair of Theology

T
The voyage was adventurous. First the ship ran onto a
sand-bank; then it was boarded bya French privateer,
and then fired at by an English patrol-boat in mistake
for the French vesse!. But the most serious danger for
Emanuel was when they anchored at Wapping on the
Thames, and he and some Swedish friends broke the
strict quarantine regulations and ferried up to London.
Finding he was From plague-ridden Sweden, the
authorities threatened him with hanging, but let him off,
probably because of his personal credentials. The
episode must have made an impression on him, for
many years later, when the Lord first appeared to
Swedenborg in Delft Holland, he was asked whether he
had a c1ean bill of healthl
London had been almost entirely rebuilt since the
devastating fire of 1666. The palaces of the aristocracy
contrasted with stinking siums and alleys. It was the
vortex of the intellectual life of Europe. The world-wide
British Empire was contro/led From London by the Royal
Navy. And when, at that time in history, astronomers
were laying out the fines of longitude on the globe, they
took it for granted that the meridian 0 should pass
through London's Observatory at Greenwich - for was
not London the centre of the world?
Swedenborg visited London seven times during his Iife:
in 1710, 1744, 1748, 1758, 1765, 1769 and 1771 (when
he died there). Culturally urbane and cosmopolitan as
he was, he might even have been taken for a Londoner,
except for his thick Scandinavian accent.

Emanuel Swedenborg as a young man,

an unverified portrait. 16
We know a good deal about this his first visit in 1710,
from his correspondence with his brother-in-Iaw Eric
Benzelius. He deliberately lodged with various
craltsmen, such as lens grinders and brass instrument
makers, in order to learn their cralts, and attended
lectures by the great scientists of the day. He visited
Greenwich Observatory, and was allowed to watch the
Astronomer Royat the Rev. John Flamsteed, doing his
observations - a great honour for a young student. It
was thus that he learnt how to calculate the eclipses of
the sun and moon. He also went (by stage coach) to
Oxford to meet Edmond Halley, with whom he
discussed his own method of finding the Longitude at
sea by observations of the moon.
1 mention here two lesser-known incidents, both of
which are probable but neither of which can be
proved:-
(1) We know he visited the newly-completed St Paul's
Cathedral, and the assumption is that he c1imbed to the
Whispering Gallery under the base of the dome, ta hear
his own voice reflected around the circle. By measuring
the interval between his voice and the echo, and
knowing the circumference ofthe dome, he would have
been able to calculate the velocity of sound!
(2) He almost certainly met WILLIAM PENN, the
Quaker who founded Pennsylvania. Emanuel was
entertaining his younger brother Jesper and their step-
cousin the young Rev. Peter Hesselius, who broke their
journey in London en route for America. We know they

Eric Benzelius,
Swedenborg's brother'in-Iaw and
17 University Librarian.
 {~S~~ff[~~~~~~~lf1~~:~·
called upon Penn, then resident in London, who gave
the two young travellers a letter to deliver to the
Governor of Pennsylvania. Obviously Emanuel would
have accompanied them to meet the great man. This is
interesting, because Swedenborg mentions in his diary
j,'; .-", f-.:..·,:-,c.-::-"_"'L._.<J:/""J,L..
r e''1\,/L<f';:''. n·)I.l'.'':">(......1'..L_)~.~ .._ ....,_"
for November 1748, that Penn spoke to him in the ." - h" . :" ••:./_."" -I,.. ·,~. : 7/- ~i'._<r.::.l,,;-r;,L_·~J,,:,..,Ir-';...•• .... -.A· ..:.1 •."".
Spiritual World, criticizing him for writing so harshly of ".r::; ..
Ji t . .If·· . "-'f;: r"-'-~"" .:,~ ,J!t'fJ,r-:""·J·../!I t:;u'.J ,'/. "'/:~'.:', ,;J~~. -,'y.".
·"he.· 1.,. ., '-'N-'.

:·~~~rr;:;~·>~~Ë~t2~~;}j~;~.;~;~;;~~:~~~;~:~::~~~Z~}
the Quakers, saying there were good Quakers as weil as
bad! Why Penn in particular, and not, say, George Fox?
Probably because Swedenborg had met Penn in the q,,. ~ ~r.l···~·~·· ·:~.ïC:.,.'!~ ,Nl/~ ..::j,._",,4l.. .. ~.J,.~ ,~
...~J ~-#-. ..-1- ... .. • • / ... /­

t1esh .
While in England, Emanuel projected a number of
inventions, such as a hydraulicjack, a submarine, and a
glider-type aircraft and an automatic air gun. Add to
these a ~universal musical instrument", playing
melodies marked on paperwith dots. AJso ~a method of
conjecturing the wills and affections of men's minds by
means of analysis" (7 an anticipation of Freud!) It must . ,.",-1 .. _ J .... "i .. t_ .J'7J.'-'-' ..l~r-/.1 t(' 1'-..4 .' ~ ri'_' ~'~ 1 .". '.
be admitted that these intriguing inventions remained .: ;'.: .'(_:.~~:( .'~ :;:.::"'~:' .... ~ ~ ,;::.:;, ~;:;':-.-:~.~:;l::..'d...:.."";.~.·.: :~:.;'.:: ,... ,:>'"
on the drawing board, but they give evidence of the J."""" . j.. ...... 1 ··J:···~'·r~r("fJI ..-r 'l: ' / ••••• - ' , ••• ".
.. "- J-~ 1~/..I ~ ..".. r· .' o., •• <.·).."..··1..,... ~ •
. .,: . , . - ...... '.y/' ..l·~r~- i-'.".lf ~~.(
fertile and exploratory character of his mind. He sent
~ ..;:~. ' .. , ~.':'7~::·~ ,ftfr .; !:r~
·! 'l'V\:~~
the drawings to his father at Brunsbo, who, when asked
for them later on, said he couldn't remember what he
had done with them! So nothing really came of any of
,' . :. .
, '.
-
';. ','h .. ·

" .. .l. , - -....

!
'~-rr:
•
L._ ' -_
l \~
r

J
;-:. ~
~
i.1
IT]'-4~NL'
~
_;,1._

-FT-I-·r~·I..,.,.
_ l ')
,.<Ji,.8
, ....

. J., '"
Ifr·/~'· ~. ~/,. r--jï{"--f"".,
«ï -.1 t-
,. ./ _ / I t ' J.
them. .. ,--,- . . . . ., ... ,.,4-..
v " •,
.~
,
1.·
1 .'
1:1" t
"J." . - . . , /. .....
101- .. --'·'1"'7; ..· •. ·

18
An early manllscript showing Swedenborg's sketch
for a nying machine - Ilot entirely practicable but
incorporating sound aerodynamic principles.
iii,~:,Iiik~~i~·~~~<·~~:~;;!é;.::

After 2! years in England, Emanuel made for the

Continent. ft was now 1713 and he was 25 years old.
1713 was the date of the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht
which ended the so-called "War of the Spanish
Succession,"and ambassadors from ail over Europe
were gathering together in Utrecht Holland. Emanuel
joined them there, no doubt hoping to gain some
insight into European politics. He also visited Leyden to
see the world-famous observatory, and then proceeded
to Paris, the second city of the Western world. Here,
unfortunately, he was laid up in bed for six weeks - one
of the very few occasions on which he suffered sickness;
and it was not until the following year (1714) that he at
last set out for Sweden, staying for a while in the
charming liUle city of Rostock to recuperate.
Look at the map and you wBl see the three towns of
Rostock, Stralsund &:. Greifswald, close to the Island of
Rugan, on the Baltic coast ofwhat is now East Germany.
They are in fact quite near to the southem tip of
Sweden, and today there is a ferry across. Rostock is in
Mecklenburg, but Stralsund and Greifswald are in
Pomerania, which was then a Swedish Province, not King Charles XII. 5wedenborg's patron who shared
his mathematical and mechanical interests,
ceded to Germany until a century later (1815). Here,
among his fellow countrymen, Emanuel devoted
himself to composing Latin verses, some of which he
mostly in praise of personalities whom he admired,
published in Greifswald.
including King Charles XII, the "Phoenix of the North." 1
One doesn't think of Emanuel Svedberg as a poet. But 1 am assured by a Latinist that they are elegant and
have on my bookshelf a volume of 88 pages entitled wriUen in the best c1assical Latin. There was no end to
N
"Emanuelis Swedenborgii Opera Poetica pUblished by Emanuel's versatility! (He could even play the organ, so
the University of Uppsala 1919. These poe ms are he tells us.)

19
Towards the end of the year (1714) Sweden was in a
turmoil. Their heroic King Charles XII had been
defeated by the Russians at Poltava (1709) and been
honourably imprisoned in Turkey (1709-14). He
escaped, and after a breakneck ride incognito on
horseback with only two companions for twenty days,
he arrived in Stralsund on November 22nd 1714, and
set to work preparing to defend the city against his
enemies the Danes and Germans. Not wishing to get
involved in the siege, Emanuel was fortunate in
obtaining a passage across the straits in a Swedish
vessel in company with the wife of the Councillor of war
(June 1715) and thus at last he reached his father's
house in Skara, after an absence of nearly l'ive years.
The King also made an ignominious escape when
conditions in the besieged city of Stralsund got
desperate. Ashamed to meet his many critics in
Stockholm, the Phoenix of the North set up a temporary
court in Lund near Malmo on the southern point of his
country, where Emanuel was to visit him later on.
Back with his family, the young scientist began looking
for a job. He was 27 years of age. He thought he would
Iike a professorship of mechanics and astronomy at
Uppsala, for which he was weil qualil'ied: but there was
no such department the main emphasis of the
university being in theology and the humanities. He
suggested that each of the existing eighteen professors
should forego a seventh of his salary to raise enough
money to finance a new Department with Emanuel
Svedberg himself as professor! When he was advised
that this would not work, he said he was "only joking!·
20
(Later, when the job was offered to him, he turned it
down.)
While living at Brunsbo in Skara Emanuel
demonstrated his practical genius by installing a
speaking-tube From the living room on the first floor,
down to the kitchen in the basement through which he
could shout "Coffee!" and one ofthe seven Iittle servant
girls would run to bring it up. My wife and 1 visited
Brunsbo in 1976, and we were taken down into the
basement (the oldest part of the house) and shown the
great stove against the kitchen wall, designed by Bishop
Svedberg himself. On the other side of the wall, which
got very hot was a platform on which the seven girls
slept alternately head to foot and feet to head, so that
the alternate ones got hot heads and cold feet and the
others got hot feet and cool heads! Whether it was on
account of this stove or not the house was burnt down
twice, in 1712 and 1730 - though the basement itself
was undamaged, and remains so to this day.
Now for work! Emanuel produced and published six
issues of a rather beautiful scientil'ic journal called
"Daedalus Hyperboreus' ("The Northern Inventor").
This included accounts of his own inventions, and also
those of Christopher Polhammer, which heaJed the rift
caused by Emanuel's sudden departure for England in
1710 immediately after Polhammer had agreed to take
him on as an apprentice. In fact Polhammer was so
pleased with the Daedalus Hyperboreus that he had a
set of the first four issues bound together, and took
them, and Emanuel himself, to Lund for presentation to
the King. Charles XII was extremely interested in
mathematics and mechanical subjects, and he and
Emanuel got on splendidly together. Emanuel showed
him an ecJipse of the moon, and explained other
astronomical phenomena. Together they worked out a
system of numbering based on 8 instead of 10.
Polhammer had given the King a pewter dinner set, and
Emanuel wrote a small treatise on ~Cleaning and
Repairing Pewter".
ln the end, the King graciously appointed Emanuel
Svedberg "Assessor Extraordinary of the Board of
Mines" - an unpaid supernumerary appointment,
meaning that he would be given the post of Assessor
when the next vacancy occurred. (The Board, or College
as it was ca lied, consisted of a President, two
Councillors, and four Assessors.) ln the meantime he
was to serve as Polhammer's assistant. it was at about
this time, in 1716, that the King ennobled Polhammer
and his family, their name being changed to "Po/hem",
the name by which the engineer is now generally
known.
B'ig construction work was on hand, such as the
Karlscrona Canal, and the Trollhattan Locks as part of
the plans for the famous Gôta Canaljoining Stockholm
with Gothenburg (a journey which 1took by canal boat
in 1927). Unfortunately, however, Sweden was now at
war with Norway, and the King ordered Pol hem to
transport sorne small gunboats overland from
Stromstad for fifteen miles across the frontier down into
the Norwegian waters of the 'Idde(jord, to attack and
reduce the town of Frederikshall at the head ofthe (jord,

King Charles XII, a military portrait.

21
which the Swedes now had under siege. The ships could
not go by sea, because of the British Navy. Pol hem sent
Emanuel to superintend this operation - his first
commission. There were two galleys, five long-boats
and a sloop. By the use of rotlers and sledges and
running water, over hills and through valleys, and
across five small lakes, the portage was successfully
accomplished; and to this day the area is known as "The
galley bogs of Bohuslan".
Actually the project resulted in tragedy, because the
King, while conducting the siege, was shot and killed.
Sorne say he was shot in the back by his own soldiers,
and there was even a rumour that Princess Ulrika's
husband Frederic of Hesse had something to do with il
We do know as a fact that the whole campaign was very
unpopular.
Meanwhile Emanuel returned to the Polhem
household, where he was treated Iike a son, and might
easily have become a son-in-Iaw. Pol hem had a son
Gabriel. and three daughters. The eldest daughter was
Maria, born in 1698 and therefore about twenty; the
second was Emerentia, born in 1703 and therefore
about fifteen. The King had suggested that Emanuel
should marry Maria, and it was generally understood
that he and she were engaged. But there really wasn't
much between them; and, perhaps with Emanuel's
contrivance, she managed to get betrothed to the
King's Chamberlain, a widower named ,Mannerstrom. In
a letter to Eric Benzelius, dated September 14th 1718,
Emanuel writes: "Polhem's eldest daughter is betrothed
Christopher Polhammer. or Pol hem. the illustrious
22 inventor and engineer with whom Swedenborg
work.ed on several important projects.
to a chamberlain of the King. 1wonder what people will
say about this, inasmuch as she was engaged to me! His
second daughter is in my opinion much prettier." 50,
with Maria out of the running, Emanuel got himself
officially engaged to 'Mrensa, with a document signed
by the father. He was to marry her as soon as he got a
proper job and Emerentia was a bit older.
But the poor girl seems to have been scared by her
brilliant and uncomfortable suitor. After ail, he was, at
30, twice her age! 50 she persuaded her brother Gabriel
ta get hold ofthe document and destroy il. That was the
end of the little affair.
With the death of King Charles XlI, Emanuel had lost his
patron. Worse than that his intimacy with the Jate King
was now greatly to his disadvantage. The whole feeling
of the country had swung against the King's party. Even
the new Queen, Charles's sister, was forced to renounce
her hereditary right to the throne, so that she heId it
only at the good pleasure of the Diet. 5he was to be
virtually only a figurehead.
ln reading 5wedish history, one cornes across
references to the two parties, Hats and Caps, rather Iike
our Whigs and Tories. King Charles XlI had led the Hats
or Plumes - what we should cali the "Hawks", who
romanticized war and gloried in the 5wedish Empire,
which had in fact reduced the country to bankruptcy
and disgrace. The Hats had poured scorn on the Peace
Party or Doves, saying they put on their night-caps and
went to sleep when the c1arion trumpet-call summoned
the country to arms! The Cap or Peace party was now in
Emerentia Polhem. The second of Polhem's Three
23 daughlers. 10 whom Swedenborg was once
officiallv enQaQed.
control. Emanuel Svedber9- being known as a personal proposed marriage eight years later (when 38) to Stina
Friend of the late Kin9- was naturally regarded as a ~HatN, Maja, daughter of Bishop Steuchias of Karlstad; but she
and every opposition was placed in the way of his turned him down and married Baron Cedercrantz. Alter
becoming a full member of the Board of Mines, which that, he gave up; rented his own apartment in
was an important State Committee. Actually, of course, Stockholm, and engaged a male servant.
Emanuel was neither Hat nor Cap, neither Hawk nor 1 will end here by mentioning the strange case of Sara
Dove. Ifanythin9- he was a Dove, as he strongly opposed Hesselius, his step-cousin (sister to the Rev. Peter
ail aggressive warfare; but he was prepared to support Hesselius in the U.S.A. who had visited him in London.)
the defence of his country if it was in danger. This Sara had apparentJy been desperately in love with
1 have already reported how Ulrika Eleanora, on Emanuel, but he had failed to respond. Alter her own
becoming Queen, ennobled the Svedberg family in May premature death, she Iiterally haunted him, urging him
1719, sa that Emanuel's name became SWEDENBORG, secretly to kill himself and sa join her in the spiritual
and he took his seat in the House of Nobles. Even then, world. He had to hide his dagger in a drawer, so as to
however, it was not until1724, when he was 36, that he avoid the temptation to use it! (Spiritual Diary 4530)
was actually put on the pay-roll as Assessor of Mines. And this was before his illumination and the opening of
As for Emerentia Pol hem, she eventually married a his eyes into heaven and hell.
wealthy man named Reinhold Ruckerskôld and had
nine children. Alter her husband's death, she managed
his estate, and ordered the building of a large mansion;
but unfortunately, while it was under construction, she
fell From the scaffoldin9- broke her le9- and had to walk
with crutches for the rest of her life. She composed and
published a book of poe ms, now losl Some time alter
her death in 1760, three of her daughters visited
Swedenbor9- who told them that he olten met 'Mrensa
in the Spiritual World, and she was happy there.
It is generally assumed that, alter his disappointment
over Emerentia Polhem, Emanuel showed no further
interest in women. But in fact he is known to have

24
 Emanuel Swedenborg_

25
 .;
.:.
.... \ P L.·/X IJ F. I.. J l 'i /.I.J~ ;JI:"
~TOCKH()J..\I
... Ir'
.~
.',iw
.1 .~.,IJ:·" J.'.Um ,1,·I.,'IrI,../~.I:,.J.-I1'"
," .1 ;1," ~)f')""> .1.. J,t"f.JlIII,I.' . Stockholm, Sweden's capital city where
Swedenborg heId high office and spent most of
the middle years of his Iife.

>
.".C. ~.
Il ..... ,,

-.
~,

> '.

"

26
PART m.
ASSESSOK OF MINES, PUYSICIST,
ANATOMIST.

As a civil servant and member of the House of Nobles,

Swedenborg spent most of the middle years ofhis Iife in
Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
Stockholm is a beautiful city, spreading over both sides
of the effluence of Lake Malaren into the Baltic Sea. It
covers many rocky islands connected by bridges or
ferry-boats. In winter the nights are long and bitter, and
sorne of the channels freeze over. But during the short
summer months the sun scarcely dips below the
northern horizon at midnight; the weather is warm, and
wild flowers give bright colour everywhere. The white
sails ofboats fill the waterways, and the breezes are rich
with the odour of pine forests and wood-smoke.
For twelve years or so (from 1724 to 1736) Swedenborg
devoted most of his time to the work of the Cham ber of
Mines, attending the regular meetings of the Board at
the big stone building in Mynt Square - rattling over the
cobble-stones in his horse-drawn carriage. He worked
as a chemist in the laboratory, assaying metals; and
joined the Board in the administrative office,
recommending laws to the Diet dealing with exports of
iron and copper, and taxes on the mines. He travelled
around Sweden, right up to Lapland (on horseback or in
a coach) inspecting the pits, even going down shafts on

27 Smelting equipment. an engraving from one of

Swedenborg's earlier works.
 -,
d.!-; ~ i

MAcHINA BltJ1andi .M.ETAJ.LA

cjn --m~ ,kg 'Ve f'Jettilr'.s .­
,jn,w"ta. cW
Gman: JlVedlJ-ew.

Machine for raising ore_ invented by Swedenborg.

28
a rope-end, advising owners on improved methods of
smelting and extracting From the ore; settling quarrels EMANUELIS SWEDENBÜRGII,
ASSESS. COLLICGIl METALLICI SAC. REGIJE

among owners in local courts, and judging industrial MAJICST. REGNIQ.UE SVECIJE

disputes. On three occasions he made long journeys

abroad - mostly in Germany, to study mining methods REGNUM SUBTERRANEUM
in other lands and introduce the best into Sweden. SI V E

He wrote voluminously on chemistry and physics MINERALE

(especially, or course, on metallurgy); on the atomic DE

structure of matter, on crystals, on mathematics

(including the first Swedish treatise on Algebra), on salt
manufacture, docks and sluices. He published
VENA ET LAPIDE

Miscellaneous Observations in 1721, and Opera

Philosphica in 1733 - both in Leipzig. These studies
FER R 1,
UT ET
took him to the top rank in his field - if it cou Id be said
what exactiy was his field! VARIIS EJUS PROBANDI

Not satisfied with his now encyclopaedic knowledge of

ail aspects of the mineraI kingdom, he turned his
MODIS.

attention ta the human body. How did the body CLASSIS SECUNDA.
function? What was the human SouJ or Spirit? Where
was it situated, and how was it related to the body? How
did the BRAIN come into this, and how did the brain
operate? Such questions led him to pursue the subject
of human anatomy and physiology. He took two years
leave of absence From the Board in order to attend the
Medical SchooJ in Paris. (1736)
He travelled to France through Holland and Belgium,
much of the way by canal boat. As usual, he kept a
Journal of Travet commenting on the state of the DR ES DIE&- L lP S 1 JE,

countryside through which he passed, with detailed APUD FRIDERICUM HEKELIUM,

notes on ail sorts of things, such as how to deal with "SLIOI'OL. '«CIO'. M DCC XXXIV.

Tille page from one of 5wedenborg's metaliurgical works.

29
wood worms and termites, how to make fences, and
manufacture window-glass. During vacations from Paris
he crossed the Alps and visited Venice, proceeding
through ltaly to Rome, where he had an audience with
the Pope. Returning by way of Paris to Amsterdam, he
published "The fconomy of the Animal ffingdom' (or,
as it should more accurately be called, "The Interaction
or organisation of the Realm of the Soul") - this was
mostly on the blood system in the human body. Later,
he projected a much Jarger work, to be called simply
"The Animal Nngdom' (or, "Realm of the Soul") which
was to deal systematically with every organ ofthe body,
and might extend (he thought) to about seventeen
volumes!
But, despite aIL his searching, he never found the Soul.
Eventually he came to realise that he never would find it
by the physical approach, because the Soul was not
physical. It was on a different plane altogether, invisible
to the physical eyes. Yet itevidentJy constituted a replica
of the entire body in minute detail. But (and this was his
great achievement of Faith) he no longer believed that
the Soul was created by the body, but rather that the
body was created by the soull The Sou! was the real
person, the body was only its c1othing. When a man
died, ail that happened was that he discarded his
clothing, which was thrown away, while his Soul went on
living, in the SPIRITUAL DIMENSION.

Emanuel Swedenborg. engraved by Bernigroth as

the frontispiece to Swedenborg's 'Principia',

Engraving of an iron works. from Swedenborg's

work on the subject.
31
PART IV. TUB DAWN OF SPIRITUAL Swedenborg had had premonitions of psychic
CONSCIOUSNBSS sensitivity since early childhood. His parents said that
'angels spoke with him," because he told them that he
had had playmates in the garden house, when they
knew he had been there alone. In later years he himself
reported that From his fourth to his tenth year, he had
several times revealed things at which his father and
mother had marvelled. While writing his philosophical
and anatomical works, he said he saw "joyful flashing
lights when he uncovered a new truth.
N

lt was during this journey to Amsterdam that he

It is now 1743. Swedenborg is 55. He is back at home,
regularly began to experience psychic phenomena,
and has acquired a European reputation as
seeing lights and hearing sounds, and being involved in
philosopher, physicist, anatomistand statesman, not to
deep sleep and heavy dreams, which he interpreted
mention being an influential member of the Board of
symbolically, in a style recommended later by Freud ­
Mines. As an author he isjust completing the first three
they mostly related to his worldly ambitions, which he
volumes of his great work "Regnum Animale" The
was beginning to see he must relinquish.
Realm orthe Soul. As there are no adequate facilities in
Sweden for producing works of this magnitude, he is By far the most important event of this period took
setting off again for Holland to have it published. place on April 6th 1744 in a hotel in Delft, Holland-so
important that he marked the entry in his Journal "NB
He took his usual route: Stralsund, Hamburg and
NB NB". On that night after a series of terrible
Amsterdam. During the whole ofthisjourney, from July
temptations, he had a Beatific Vision of the Lord Jesus
1743 to Odober 1744, he kept a Journal, which
Himself, whom he beheld face to face, and who actually
became less and less a record of scenery and events,
spoke to him, with almost shattering effect. This
Iike his former Journals ofTraveL and more and more a
experience places Swedenborg among the great
Journal of Dreams, by which title it is now known. But
Mystics, and it can be regarded as the critical turning
the dreams were not ordinary dreams; they were in fad
point of his life. From that day he began to have regular
psychic visions; and this Journal became a valuable
open glimpses into the spiritual dimension.
and important record of his transition into mysticism,
and through mysticism into open spiritual Strangely enough, the first actual object he observed on
enlightenment. the other side was a FLYl When he realized that the fly

32
was composed of spiritual substance, not matter, he
was so disturbed that he couJd hardly bear it!
Having settled in Amsterdam and delivered Vols. 1and Il
of Regnum Animale to the printers, he had a vision of a
ship, which he interpreted as meaning that he must
proceed to England for the publication of Vol. III. He
sailed for Harwich on May 13th 1744 and arrived two
days later, which, by the English calendar, was May 4th!
And so by coach across the pleasant fiat countryside of
Essex, through Epping Forest and the East End of
London. A fellow traveller on the coach was a Moravian
gentleman, who introduced Swedenborg to a fellow
Moravian, John Brockmer in Fleet Street with whom he
took up lodgings.
His Journal of Dreams continued. On September 21st
he saw a spirit-man sitting on a block of ice, who
addressed him rudely: "Hold your tongue or l'II strike
you!" (not a very favourable introduction to the
in habitants of the other world!) But a week later, after
much suffering and temptation, Swedenborg saw the
gable-end of a beautiful palace, which indicated to him
that he had at last been accepted as a member of a
society in heaven - a privilege usually accorded only to
a man after he has died and left the natural world. This,
we are told, produced in him a state of great joy and
peace.
There was still the problem of his worldly ambition. In
London, on October 18th, he attended a lecture at the
College of Medicine in Bloomsbury (close to the present
Swedenborg House) and was disappointed that his own
work in anatomy was not mentioned. That night he
dreamt that a big dog bit his leg with its terrible jaws,
leaving him with a twisted foot- which meant he was to
beware of self-love!
Having completed Vol. III of Regnum Animale,
Swedenborg began to write a book of an entirely
different character - a blend of science, philosophy,
religion and poetic imagination, called "The Worship
N
and Love of Ood But before this was completed, he
•
seems to have had another traumatic experience which
confirmed the change which was already taking place in
the course of his Iife. It was on April 6th 1745, exactly a
year after the Lord's first appearance to him, at Delft,
Holland. The story goes that he was enjoying a hearty
meal at a small hotel in Bishopsgate, London. He had
just finished eating, when the daylight seemed to grow
dim, and the floor became covered with disgusting
creatures - snakes, frogs, beetles. A man appeared,
sitting in a corner of the room, who said: "Eat not so
much!" Then the creatures disappeared with a loud pop
or bang.
"From that same night" (Swedenborg is reputed to have
informed his friend Robsahm, the bank manager in
Stockholm, to whom we are indebted for the whole
story) "the World of Spirits, Hell and Heaven were fully
opened to me, and 1 saw and recognized there many
former acquaintances of every walk of Iife." He had
previously, as a philosopher, convinced himself that
there is a spiritual world, and that man has a soul or
spiritual body; but now he had seen for himself that ail
33
his friends who had ~died" were still alive and active on
the other side. This seems to have meant a great deal to
him.
The question remains: who was the man in the inn who
said, ~Eat not so much"? It used to be thought it was the
Lord God Himself. But many scholars today believe
there has been a confusion with Swedenborg's Beatifie
Vision at Delft on the same date the previous year (April
6th). More probably the whole story is a [ater version of
the account given by Swedenborg himself in Spiritual
Diary 397, headed: ~A Vision by day concerning those
who are devoted to the Table and who thus indulge the
flesh. - 1745, April." Nevertheless something critical
must have taken place at that time, because From then
onwards Swedenborg found himself living consciously
in both the natural and the spiritual worlds,
simultaneously.
Fully aware now of his new situation and the
responsibilities it brought with il, he gave up writing the
Worship and Love of 00 d, and made his way back home
to Sweden (July 1745). Here he studied Hebrew and
Greek, and read the Bible in its original languages,
seeing its meaning now in a totally new light. Being
Emanuel Swedenborg, he began to set it down in a
multi-volume expository work called Adversaria, or
~The Word Explained". Side by side with this, he began
preparing a Bible Concordance called "Index Biblicus v ,
as a useful tool for further exposition.
He was still a civil servant and naturally returned to his
desk in the Chamber of Mines, saying nothing about his
34
newly developed faculties. His work there was evidently
highly appreciated, as, a year later, when one of the two
Councillors retired, the Board unanimously
recommended Assessor Swedenborg for the vacant
Councillorship. However, realizing the increase in
commitment which the new position would involve, and
with his eyes on other horizons, he decided to retire
From the Board altogether (he was now 59 years old). He
submitted his resignation to the King, who accepted it
only with the greatest reluctance, granting him a
pension of half salary; and almost immediately
Swedenborg left the country on yet another Foreign
journey (J une 1747), probably to make a c1ean break
with the Board. As usual, he went first to Amsterdam,
busily working on his Bible Indexes and the Word
Explained.
He also began at about this time to record his visions
and psychic experiences in what he called a Spiritual
Diary, which he kept for nearly twenty years (1747­
1765). Its translation into English occupies five bulky
volumes, which are a gold-mine for the researcher in
spiritual phenomena, in addition to shining a brilliant
Iight on the inner Iife and development of Swedenborg
himself. Unfortunately the first one hundred and forty
eight entries are missing; but we believe it was at about
this time - perhaps in February 1747 - that he saw one
of his most famous visions, fully described in ~True
Christian Religion" No. 508.
ln this vision he saw a magnificent square temple, with
walls of crystal and a gate of pearl, its roof being like a
crown. Within the temple was a pulpit on which lay the
open Word, encompassed by a halo of Iight which
illuminated the whole puJpit. ,ln the centre of the temple
war a shrine, hidden at first bya veil which at that time
was being withdrawn, revealing a cherub of gold
wiel'ding a vibrating sword. As Swedenborg meditated
on these things, he was instructed that the Temple
signified a New Church which was about to be
established on earth. The pulpit represented its
priesthood and preaching; the open Word upon the
pulpit indicated a revelation of the Spiritual Sense of
the Word; the cherub of gold was the Word in its literai
sense; the vibrating sword was the capacity of the literai
sense to be turned in every direction so as to favour
particular truths; and the Shrine indicated the
conjunction of the Church on earth with the innennost
heaven. Inscribed over the gate were the words NUNC
L1CET ("Now it is permitted") and Swedenborg was told
that this meant ~Now it is permitted to enter
intelJectually into the mysteries of faith".
Remember: if (as 1 believe) Swedenborg witnessed this
vision early in 1747, it was before he himself had begun
to reveaL through the press, the Spiritual Sense of the
Word. (Vol. ~ of the Arcana Coelestia came out in 1749.)
It is doubtful whether, at that early date, he had begun
to realize what his own part would be in the
inauguration of the New Church on earth. Was this
powerfuJ vision vouchsafed to him, so that when the
time of his cali came, he would understand something
of what would be involved?
1 believe, however, that the motto NUNC L1CET had a
much broader reference than merely to intellectua!
freedom in matters of Dogma previously imprisoned in
the ancient creeds. Just as the Lord made His original
incarnation in Palestine to redeem mankind From
bondage to HelL so, by coming again in His New Church,
he would once again Iiberate the human mind, which
was losing its freedom again, owing to the uprise of Hell.
A tremendous increase of influx was about to pour into
men's hearts, From heaven and From hell, presenting a
vastly greater responsibility of personal choice to New­
Age Man. The Church, Iike the human race itself, had
reached adulthood, no longer under tutelage. In the
areas of sex, politics, the arts, the intellect and in every
way, including Religion, the individual would henceforth
be responsible for his or her own chosen development.
NUNC L1CET - a ~Pennissive Society" indeed!
On August 7th 1747, a month after his arrivai in
Amsterdam, Swedenborg noted in his diary: ~There is a
change of state in me, into the Celestial Kingdom." This
is taken to be the final step in his full illumination. He
was also being led to perceive that the Lord was making
His Second Advent into the world, through
Swedenborg's instrumentality in unveiling the Spiritual
Sense of the Word. In ail humility, he recorded in his
diary for September lst 1748: ~Very many good spirits
are gJorilYing the Lord on account of His Advent; and
there is so much joy that some are saying they can
hardly bear it! Next morning, everything was in a state of
tranquility, so that 1 perceived nothing but a tranquil
silence around me, which still continues." (Sp. D. 3029)
35
Two months later, Swedenborg left Amsterdam for
London, where he booked lodgings for six months. He
abandoned the Word Explained (which had been
largely of an exploratory nature) and now, with calm
assurance and full authority, he began his great work
on the Spiritual Sense of Genesis and Exodus, the
ARCANA COELE5T1A. The Writings of the New Church
were launched.
.36
PART V. TUB UOMBSTMI>.
Swedenborg actually took possession of the
Homestead (41-43 Hornsgatan) in March 1743; but
what with his being out of the country, and alterations
and improvements being required, it was not until three
years later - the Spring of 1746 (when he was 58) that
he actually moved in. There had been a caretaker
previously.
The house itselfwas quite small, almost a log cabin. The
guttering at the bottom of the steeply-sloping roof was
only about nine feet above the ground. Two rooms
constituted the ground floor, and a small kitchen: ail
heated by a blue-patterned porcelain stove reaching
from floor to ceiling, burning charcoal. One of the
rooms, apparently, was his bedroom - the bed being so
short he had practically to sleep sitting up - his wig on
the bed-post. The other room was his study. Imagine
him sitting mumed in a reindeer-skin coat using a
feather pen, with his pen-knife by his side on the table; a
porcelain ink-pot and a sprinkler of dry sand for
blotting. Ali lit at night (and most of the day in the
northern winter months) bya smelly whale-oil lamp or
tallow candies. The furnishings included the famous
inlaid marble table and a small pipe organ, which he
played to unwind his tense mind. What music would he
have played? Handel, and J.S. Bach, possibly - they
were both just three years his senior. Much more Iikely
Buxtehude, who, though a Dane, was born and lived not
far away in Southern Sweden, and died in 1707.
Swedenborg's hou se, on Homsgatan, Stockholm

37
An impression of the House and Garden.
The loft up the little twisted flight of stairs contained
trays of neatly labelled seedlings, sent to him by his
friend Wretman in Amsterdam, who imported them
from the Dutch East Indies; and from the new Swedish
settlement in Pennsylvania of which Swedenborg's
father, Rev. Jesper, had been non-resident Bishop. This
propagation of exotic plants would undoubtedly have
been studied with great interest by young Carl Unné
(Unnaeus) who married Swedenborg's niece, Sara
Elisabet Moraeus.
The outside appearance of the house was bright and
cosy: the woodwork painted red-ochre and the window­
38
frames white. The box-trees in the front garden were
known as 'Swedenborg's grenadiers Alongside the
N
•
road was the carriage house, and adjoining it the home
of his gardener and housekeeper (husband and wife).
Shortly before his death, Swedenborg made a list of his
possessions:-
Silver Service. Chandelier. Collee Pot and
Sugar bowl, l'Iilk Can. Fine Teaspoons and
Tongs. Two CandIesticks. JeweUed Tray, Six
Precious SnutI-Boxes. Uebrew Bible.
l'Iicroscope
A path led from the front of the house across a small
flower garden, and through a gate in the fence into the
main garden or orchard. It then continued straight for
fifty-five yards ta the summer-house against the rear
wall. Half way along was a small pavilion, copied from
manor houses in England; through it at right angles ta
the main path was another path, leading ta an aviary
made of brass wire ta the left, and a house of mirrors ta
the right. (In winter, the birds were taken up ta the loft of
the house.) ln the far left-hand corner was a maze (also
with mirrors) ta amuse the children who often visited
the garden on their way home from school. On the far
right was a small Iibrary and store-room.
The summer-house was a cubical structure, with roof
sloping up ta a square skylight. and a bail ornament on
top in the middle. Three stone steps led up ta the front
door; and ta the left and right of the door were two
windows with hinged shutters. The woodwork was
painted yellow, the front door green, and the shutters
red - ail very neat and gay. A desk and chair were in the
front room, the rear one being only a store-cupboard. In
wet weather it was possible ta reach the summer-house
under a covered way, leading from the far side of the
house along the left-hand wall of the garden, entering
the summer-house bya side door leading into the back
room. This interesting little building has been
renovated and is on show in Skansen, as my wife and J
were ta see on our pilgrimage.

5wedenborg's 5ummer-house,

39
PART VI. A PILGRIMAGE.
1 first went to Sweden, and by train up to Lapland - the
"Land of the Midnight Sun," in 1927, when 1 was 20.
Later, in 1976, my wife and 1 made a Pilgrimage to
"Swedenborg Country" - Stockholm, Uppsala, Skara,
Gôteborg. In Stockholm we soon found Hornsgatan a
main road running along the cliff-top on the south side
of the waterway, and searched for plots 41-43, the
address of Swedenborg's homestead. It's ail built up
now, of course; but we found a handsome plaque
commemorating his residence there, over a shop now
occupied by a Pakistani. Above the shop next door
swung a free-hanging notice board, "BOUTIQUE
GIOTN.
Round the corner were sorne steps going up, past an
old house which closely resembled extant pictures of
Swedenborg's own house; and so to the top of the cliff,
from which was a breath-taking view across the
waterway to the Old City, with the lace steeple of the
Royal Church (Riddarholmskyrkan) and c1usters of fine
public buildings, towers and steeples, and the white
sails of shipping. We admired the famous City Hall,
reputed to be the finest in Europe; but Swedenborg
would not have seen this, as it was not built until1923.
'There used to be one in Lincoln Park, Chicago. cast by Adolph
Jonsson the sculptor; but one night it disappeared. Presumably it was
stolen for the copper.
40
Across the road from the Boutique Giota is a small
grassy park containing one of the only busts of
Swedenborg on public display anywhere in the world.· It
stands on a stone plinth bearing the single word
"SWEDENBORG", Below it on the plinth is an embossed
bronze figure of a wigged 18th-century gentleman
holding up what looks Iike a framed portrait of a child's
face. In front of him stands a little girl (back view) who is
gazing up at the "portraW. You and 1knowvery weil that
the gentleman is Swedenborg himself, and the "framed
portrait" is a mirror, and the Iittle girl whose face is
reflected is Greta Askbom, a neighbour's child, who has
asked to see an ange!! But why hasn't the Parks
Department who were responsible for the otherwise
excellent memorial, added an explanation interpreting
the scene for the casual observer?
If you want something a bit more sophisticated, you
must seek out the works of Carl Milles, Sweden's
greatest sculptor, which are on display at Millesgarden,
a fantastic collection of sculptures in beautiful
surroundings sloping down to Lake Vartan, Here we find
Emanuel Swedenborg: kneeling, eyes c1osed, agonized
expression on his face, right arm stretched out",
undoubtedly a work of genius, but does this represent
the Swedenborg we know?
1 once asked a Swedish girl in a train what they had
taught her in school about Swedenborg. Her eyes
brightened as she said, "He was a crazy man, , . he saw
ghosts!" Did she get that idea from Carl Milles? Or did
Carl Milles get it from people Iike her? It says in the
 catalogue: "One of Milles' most inspired interpretations
of an historie figure. Originally ordered by the English
Swedenborg Association, but never purchased." (What
1 wonder, is the "English Swedenborg Association"?)
There are two famous portraits of Swedenborg: one by
Brander in the Northern Museum, Stockholm, with a
copy in the Royal Academy of Sciences; the other by
Krafft in Gripsholm Castle. Both were painted about
1770, when he was 82. They are so much alike that the
Krafft portrait might have been copied from the
Brander.
ln Brander, Swedenborg is holding a scroll in his right
hand, bearing the title "Apoca/ypsis Reve/ata". ln the
Krafft, he is holding in his left hand a large thin hard­
back volume, on which a later hand has tried to copy the
wording from the Brander, with two mistakes in the
Latin! (Relevata for Revelata) As a work of art the Krafft
is probably finer than the Brander.
While in Stockholm, we visited the Cham ber of
Commerce in Mynt Square which used to be the
Chamber of Mines where Swedenborg worked for thirty
years. Here we saw the famous inlaid marble table,
which he presented to the Board in 1761, together with
a small treatise on "Inlaying Marble". The interesting
thing about this treatise is that he wrote it while his
spiritual eyes were opened and he was working on "The
Interior Sense ofthe Prophets and Psalms". The subject
matter is utterly different but the hand-writing is the
same, which has a bearing on the nature of his
- ~ . inspiration.
Bronze plaque on the plinth of a bust of
Swedenborg near to the site of his home in
Stockholm. 41
 Swedenborg-s
coat of arms_

# .- --. _ ~~~ro.- :..#..- - ..,-' ~..~ __ ._ _ \

4. • '

The HOllse of Nobles where Swedenborg took his

seat as a member of the The Swedish Diet.

Inside the Great Hall.

42
ln my mind 1had always assumed that the marbJe table
had been made in !taly. 1 told the caretaker so, but he
contradicted me and said quite definitely that it had
been made in Hol/and. 1 persisted "This is not Dutch
work, it is Italian". He was equally adamant, and so we
parted. 1 have since discovered that we were both right:
the table had been made by an ltalian craft:sman who
had set up a workshop near Amsterdam, and
Swedenborg had purchased it there!
On the bookshelf of the Iibrary 1 was delighted to find a
copy of the first Latin edition of "Apocalypse Revealed".
But, surprisingly, there were none of Swedenborg's
great works on Iron and Copper and other scientific
subjects. Had the Board of Mines taken them with them
when they vacated the premises?
We also visited the House of Nobles in Ridderholm
Square. It contained ten rows of seats cushioned with
blue velvet - actually long forms without backs, and
wider than one would expect Dozens of coats of arms
were painted in colour on the walls, and we found
Swedenborg's. The Diet, with its House of Nobles, was
dissolved in the 1860's, and an English style of
Parliament was insUtuted in its stead, so that the grand
old building which we visited had degenerated (so we
were told) into a kind of "Snob Club".
On our way to Uppsala, we stopped at the Royal
Academy of Science building at Freskate, which had
been moved here from Stockholm. A young librarian
took us up to the fifth floor in the lift, and showed us into
a large hall full of book-shelves. Soon we saw "Em.
Swedenborg" over a metal frame, live shelves high, full
of bound volumes of manuscripts: sorne in handsome
leather bindings, others in parchment. Mostly they were
very tall and narrow. Thousands of pages of antique­
looking handwriting, done with a quill! We were
impressed by the number of scratchings-out and
correction of words and even whole sentences.
Obviously here was a conscientious scholar, struggling
ta express in the best possible way the profound truths
which in his unique enlightenment he had been
permitted by the Lord to understand. There was no
evidence here of verbal dictation from God, let alone
automatic writing. My impression was that Swedenborg
himself was inspired, certainly; but his Writings were
definitely NOT inspired - that is to say, they were the
words of Swedenborg, not the Word of God. In short, his
was a rational revelation, not a verbal one.
On the back of page of the Arcana Coelestia we saw
what appeared to be a shopping list with the cash
totalled up. This brought Swedenborg the man very
close to us over the two centuries!
Among the other books were the manuscript volumes
of the Latin Apocalypse Explained, with the word
"Londini 1759" at the foot of the title page,
countersigned by Robert Hindmarsh. Obviously
Swedenborg had intended and expected to publish the
A.E. in London in 1759, following the five smaller works:
Heaven and Hel/, Earths in the Universe, LastJudgment,
The Heavenly Doctrines, and The White Horse (known
as "The London Five"). We also know that he had set
aside 10,000 dalers for the purpose. But the project fell
through, probably because the printer, John Lewis,
43
protested that he could not possibly print so vast a
work- running to at least four fat volumes, for that kind
of money! So Swedenborg changed his mind, took the
money back to Sweden, invested it at 6% interest and
set to work writing a more compact treatise covering
much the same ground - the Apocalypse Revealed,
which he actually published in Amsterdam in 1766.
Many years later the abandoned manuscript (the one
on the shelf before us) found its way back to England
and was published by Robert Hindmarsh between 1785
and 1790 - hence his signature on the title page. It was
subsequently returned ta the Royal Academy of
Sciences in Stockholm in 1842.
So we continued our journey to Uppsala, and, of course,
made our pilgrimage to the famous sarcophagus in the
beautiful red-brick Cathedral; also to the University and
ail the other sights.
What perhaps struck us most was a high cylindrical
building, prominent among the other roofs, which
turned out to 'he the Anatomical Theatre or dissecting
Hall. Ali my Iife 1had been told thal, when Swedenborg
wished to study anatomy in his search for the souL he
had found it necessary to go to Paris, where dissection
was permitted in the medicaJ schooL whereas (1 had
been told) it was illegal in Sweden. Imagine my
astonishment to discover that in fact, dissection had
been practised here in Uppsala since 1650, and they
actually had a special building for il, the second in
Europe after Padua in ltaly! Why. then. had Swedenborg
gone to Paris? Was it that the professors there were
44
superior to the Uppsala men? More advanced? Orwas it
for a more personal reason, that he needed to
dissociate himself From his commitments on the Board
of Mines? After ail, he was still a civil servant and was
expected to be at his post! He was entering a new field of
research: let it be done in a totally new environment!
We entered the Anatomical Theatre. and climbed the
steps which joined the observation circles, one above
the other. There were no seats; the students would
stand and lean forward on the rail, looking down on the
professor with his dead victim spread out on the slab in
the centre below. Our host and guide, Rev. Ragner
Boyesen, obliged me by Iying on the slab (which
reminded me of a sacrificial altar) and 1photographed
him from one of the higher circles, where Swedenborg
himself may have at one time stood to observe a
dissection.
An old engraving of Uppsala Cathedral. part of the
university with the distinctive dome of the
Anatomical Theatre can be seen on the left.
CATt"DR-ALE"
'(

45
 ---

A distant view of Uppsala as shown in another old engraving.

46
Back in Stockholm, we did what ail good tourists do: we
went to 5kansen. This is a small island in the outlet to
the Baltic Sea, to the east of the main waterway between
the north and south parts of the city - you can
approach it across a bridge From the north-east. It is a
unique open-air museum. Typical old buildings of ail
sorts have been brought here From ail over Sweden and
have been re-erected with as much Jocal colour as
possible: old farmhouses, manor houses, windmills,
charcoal-burners' furnaces, a Lapp hut ancient Viking
runes. There is a glass-blower at work, a candIe maker,
an antique printing press. There is folk music and folk
dancing, ail in authentic costume; and a zoo of animais
associated with Sweden. And there, in the Rose garden,
quite near the S.W. corner entrance, is Swedenborg's
"Lusthus" or pleasure house (summer-house). On it is a
notice stating that "Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772,
famous philosopher and naturalist built this summer­
house in about 1750, at 41-43 Hornsgatan, and laid
out a magnifrcent garden. This summer-house served
as a background to the layout of the garden Iike a
cupboard against a wall. It is shown here containing
furniture From Swedenborg's time, including a small
organ which belonged to him. Part of the rose-garden
around the summer-house is stocked with plants which
are known to have grown in Swedenborg's garden ­
such as larkspur, sweet william, flax, sweet-scented
white roses, bleeding hearts, violets, tulips and
hyacinths."
Near-by is a restaurant ca lied Sollidan. On an inner wall
is a large coloured mural painting of Swedish life. It
shows miners digging, and beneath them is
Swedenborg himself, holding up a large crystal. So,
besides being a philosopher and naturalist
Swedenborg is featured as a scientist interested in
crystals! Little attention seems to be paid to his unique
spiritual enlightenment and his wonderful theological
writings.
However, 1 felt better when 1 read a poem by Hjalman
Gullberg, which is supposed to be spoken by the
summer-house. It moved me deeply. Here is a
translation:­
"1 am a pavillon wbÏch men pass by.
1 stood in Stockholm in my master's garden.
Dis augels filled me wiU1 U1eir harmonies,
And spiritual values flourished in my care,
A mighty man of research, prophet, sage,
Ue used my simple shelter as a home.
Uere he beheld U1e gIory of U1e heavens,
And here was buiIt a New Jerusalem.
For U1e Spirit now fled 1 was a sheD,
Now 1 stand forsaken in my grief.
But harp and cymbal filled me, when
God came to visit wiU1 our Swedenborg."
47
After leaving Stockholm and Uppsala, my wife and 1took wife Sara both died in 1720! Why D.J. Swedberg? The
train across country to Skara, where we were shown "OH may stand for the original name of Danielson, or it
H
over the beautiful cathedral. Here Bishop Jesper may sim ply be "Dr or Doctor. Probably the latter.
Swedberg's memory is still green, and the organist
played some of his hymns for us, sung in the original
Swedish, 1 went up into the ornate pulpit to get the feel
of it! (The organ is not the one Emanuel claims to have
played, but a grand new one,)
Not far from Skara is the ancient monastery of
Varnhem, where the remains of the Bishop and his
second wife Sara Bergia were interred. We found a big
black Iron door (Iocked, of course) at a corner of the
outer wall of the monastery. Over the mausoleum is the
following inscription, in Swedish, on an oval stone: "The
resting-place of Bishop D.J. Swedberg and his beloved
wife Sara Swedenborg, anno 1720. Sara (Emanuel's
H

stepmother) had died on March 3rd 1720, and the

mausoleum had actually been prepared for her. Her
husband the Bishop had lived for another fifteen years,
which he had spent with his third wife, Christina
Arrhusia, who survived him. But Jesper had left
instructions that he should occupy the mausoleum with
Sara No. 2. He had characteristically written a detailed
account indicating how his own funeral should be
conducted: who should carry the coffin, the funeral
oration, and so on. So, when hedid actuallydie, in 1735,
aged 82, his instructions were carried out to the letter.
Christina had his body put in the mausoleum with Sara,
and the inscription was sim ply left as it was, although it
implies, quite falsely, that the Bishop and his second
The author standing on the steps of the
mausoleum at Varnhem, containing the remains
48
of Bishop Jesper 5wedberg. Emanuel's father.
Having worked ail that out we continued our pilgrimage
to Gothenburg (Gôteborg) - a large port on the West
Coast. There we visited Sahlgren House, Nos. 14-16
North Harbour Street. This was the building where
Emanuel Swedenborg spent Saturday afternoon, July
19th 1759. He had just arrived back from England in a
sailing ship. He had recentJy published Neaven and
NeW and the rest of the "London Five", in London, and
he had the unfinished manuscript of the "Apocalypse
Explained in his travelling case. He was visiting his
N

friend William Castel here in Sahlgren House, and there

were fifteen other guests. Every New-Churchman knows
what happened - how he was suddenly conscious that
a dangerous fire was raging through the largely wooden
buildings in South Stockholm - 300 miles away. Being
psychic and clairvoyant he was able to give a running
commentary on the progress of the fire, until (he
reported) it had burnt itself out quite close to his own
home.
To get something of the feel of what had, happened in
that house, 1 picked up the telephone and dialled our
good friends in Stockholm. No, there was no major fire
raging in Stockholm just then! NeveJtheless, if there
had been a fire, 1could have reported on it by telephone,
just as easily as Swedenborg did it by psychic
awareness and clairvoyance. . . and no less
miraculously!
For note this: clairvoyance is not the same as having
one's eyes opened into the spiritual world. The
Stockholm fire was not in the spiritual world, but here
Sahlgren House. Gothenburg, the scene of
Swedenborg's clairvoyant experience of the
Stockholm rire. 49
Gothenburg.

50

on earth! There are many psychics who practise
clairvoyance, telepathy and other PSI phenomena, but
do not have their spiritual eyes opened as Swedenborg
did. Even animais may be psychic. So, do not let us build
up Swedenborg's reputation on his clairvoyance, which
was of comparatively minor significance!
Among the last words he wrote are the following:­
-The New Church is not being estabIished by
means of miracles. In place of them, the spiritual
sense of the Word has been revealed to me, and
my spirit and body have been iotromitted ioto the
spiritual world, in order that 1 might know the
nature of heaven and heU; and that through
enIightenment from the Lord 1 might imbibe the
Truths of Faith by which man is led to etemallife.
This is more excellent than any miracle."
(Invitation VII and Coronis.)
51
PART VII. COMMUNICATING WITU SPIRITS.
"A certain man, newly arrived in the other world, heard
me speaking about the spirit or sout, and asked: "What
is a spirit? - supposing himselfto be still alive on earth.
Alter some explanation and further discussion, 1 was
permitted to tell him that he himselfwas now a spirit, as
he might know from the fact that he was over my head,
and was not standing on the ground! 1 asked him
whether he could not perceive this; and he then fied
away in terror, crying out: / am a spirit, / am a spirit!"
(A.c. 447)
This vivid and amusing little anecdote presents
Swedenborg as entirely at home now in the Spiritual
World, even able to help new-arrivais settle in! From his
Spiritual Diary, we find him moving in and out of the
spiritual dimension, conversing freely with spirits of ail
sorts and conditions. (They called him "Wonder-man"
and enquired of him "What news from the earth?N) He
even went down into hell - with special Divine
protection. Spirits could see through his eyes into this
world, and even tasted the food he ate.
He discussed many topics with them. For example, he
asked some angels about thejoys ofheaven, and one of
them observed, "There are 4 78 genera and species of
felicities in heaven". (He could have used the round
number 500, but no! There were exactly 478!)
52
The subject of SHAME was being considered, and the
question arose as to whether "shame" could exist in a
person without a sense of "reverence". Swedenborg
comments that, among men on earth, such a subject
could not be dealt with except by means of reasonings
from evidence and examples, and still the answer would
be in doubt. But in less than a minute the angels had
laid out ail the possible degrees and varieties ofShame,
and, by the side of these, ail the possible degrees and
varieties of Reverence; so that it could be seen at once
where they overlapped and where they did not.
There were some remarkable observations about
N
LOVE. "Among friends , says Swedenborg, "our delight
is in companionship; whereas with lovers it is
conjunction. In friendship we want to give ail we
possess to the other, except ourseJves. In love, we want
H
to give ourseJves "Conjugial Love is Iike a rose­
•
garden", he remarks, "which produces new roses
indefinitely". (How did this confirmed bachelor know so
much?) "Alter the death of a partner in a happy
marriage, that partner remains in intimate contact with
the one still on earth, until the death of the other, alter
whicl1 they meet again in the spiritual world and love
each other more tenderly than before."
Swedenborg mentions several individuals, including
his aunt Brita Behm and Polhem and King Frederick
(husband of Ulrica Eleonora), who witnessed their own
funerals through his eyes. Usually a few days elapsed
between death and resurrection, but he met Count
Brahe on the other side within twelve hours of his
execution.
He met his former London printer. John Lewis, in the
spiritual world (He calls him "Levi the printen and
many other quite inconspicuous individuals, good and
bad. But on the other hand he warns us not to take it for
granted that those in the other world are always who
they say they are! He olten saw spirits who genuinely
believed themselves to be certain individuals on earth,
into whose memories they had entered - they
impersonated these men to the Iife, spoke in their tone
ofvoice, used their gestures, knew ail they knew, and, of
course, spoke in their language. We are warned,
therefore, not to place too much faith in the identity of
spirits purporting to be our friends. Alter a while in the
spiritual world, spirits usually forget completely who
they were on earth - they still possess their natural
memories, but under normal conditions are
unconscious of them.
Sometimes the latent earth-memory of a spirit leaks
through or spills over into the memory of the man or
woman with whom that spirit is consorting. This
accounts for "long memory" - when a person in this
world thinks he remembers a past Iife, and attributes it
to Reincarnation whereas in fact it is the past Iife of his
attendant spirit.
There are hundreds of earths in our universe,
containing human inhabitants who, Iike us, pass over
into the spiritual world at death. Being utterly different
in character from spirits from our earth, they inhabit
regions far distant from ours. This produces a kind of
universe-in the spirit realm, corresponding to our solar
system and starry heaven. In other woras, there are
stars and pla nets there as weil as here. For Swedenborg
to visit spirits from distant worlds required a kind of
space-travel, as he describes in his book "Earths in the
Universe 6
:
"In a state of wakefulness, 1was led in the spirit by the
Lord to a certain earth in the universe, accompanied by
some spirits from our world. The progression took
place towards the right and lasted for two hours (of
earth-time). Near the boundary of our solar system
there appeared first a whitish but dense cloud, and alter
it a fiery smoke ascending from a great gulf: this was an
immense chasm, separating our solar system on that
side from certain systems of the starry heaven. The fiery
smoke appeared over a considerable distance. 1 was
conveyed across the middle of il, and then there
appeared beneath, in that gulf or chasm, very maliy
people, (who of course were spirits) talhing with one
another; but whence they were, or of what character, it
was not given me to know. One of them, however, told
me that they were guards to prevent spirits passing
without permission from one system of the universe to
another. If anyone attempted this, the fiery smoke
which exhaled from the chasm tortured him so that he
cried out wildly that he was perishing, and struggled Iike
persons in the agony of death."
On another such space-journey, Swedenborg was
accompanied by Dr Scriverius, a famous preacher from
N
Stockholm who had recently "died Alter ten hours of
•
traveL they reached an earth so far distant that our sun
looked only Iike a distant star in the sky. The inhabitants
of that earth regularly spoke with spirits, so
53
Swedenborg and his companion had no difficulty in
conversing directly with people actually living there.
(They communicated, of course, by thought­
transference.) He refers to one particular girl, who was
very beautifully dressed in a simple garment with a
tunic hanging gracefully behind her and brought up
over her arms; she had a chapletofflowers on her head.
For Dr Scriverius it was a case of love at first sight. "He
took her by the hand and spoke affectionately to her;
but she, perceiving that he was not from her earth,
withdrew and hurried away" - which was probably a
good thing for ail concerned! However, it upset the good
doctor sa much that Swedenborg had difficulty in
holding him back from following her! - and even after
they had moved on, his shadow still remained where his
thoughts were. (A.C.10. 754; f.U. 62.)
54
TUE IAST JUDGMENT
The central focus ofSwedenborg's "Spiritual Diary, #and
what most amazed his readers when they came to study
il, was the accolmt he gave of the LAST JUDGMENT. He
became known ironically in some quarters as "the man
who daims to have witnessed the Last JudgmenW He
was indeed a crazy man, because obviously, if the Last
Judgment had taken place, everybody would have been
involved! However, Swedenborg saw il, not in this world,
but in that middle region of the Spiritual World, which
lies alongside our earth, and which everyone first enters
after death.
The Church on earth in the mid-Eighteenth century was
at a very low ebb, both catholic and Protestant. Many
Religious leaders and others, on arrivai in the World of
Spirits, had surrounded themselves with fake heavens
- cities oozing with phony prosperity, prisons and
torture chambers for carrying on the Inquisition - ail
devoted, in the name of Religion to the suppression of
everything good and creative and true. There were
corrupt monks and nuns, living together in ornate
monastic complexes, with pomp and ceremony,
worshipping bogus saints ... ail devised to conceal the
worship of themselves. (Spiritual substance being
highly responsive to thought-force, everyone in the
Spiritual World tends to produce around him a visible
and substantial projection ofhis thoughts and desires.)
By the middle of our eighteenth century, the pressure of
evif was becoming intoJerable. It had been permitted by
Providence to continue thus far, like the tares in the
wheat-field of our Lord's parable, "Until the time of
harvest the end of the age. And now, Iinked up with the
H
, blowing everything away, sterilizing who le areas where
revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word in the
volumes of the "Arcana Coelestia the pent-up forces of
H
, the Lord could make ail things new - in the Spiritual
Judgment were released. Swedenborg witnessed ail
this in his inner consciousness, and reported il, live, like
a foreign correspondent speaking over the phone to his
editor. Through his words one hears the rumble of an
earthquake, and smells a whiff of sulphur. "The Last
H
Judgment Swedenborg declares, "was commenced at
,
the beginning of the year 1757, and was fully
H
accomplished by the end of that year •
1757! A key date for New-Churchmen, and a critical year
in universal history, whether the world knows it or not!
Swedenborg, psychologically sensitive as he was, had a
premonition ofit early in his illumination period. Under
date Feb. 13th 1748 he records in his diary: "There was
shown to me, in a vision, the number 57. It appeared
written before my eyes, but what it signifies 1 do not
H
c1early know. He thought it must have meant 1657, but
couldn't think of anything particular in connection with
that date. Weil, 1757 was now upon him, and vast
events were afoot. With increasing violence, mountains
in the World of Spirits were sinking into the ground,
leaving marshy plains and deep pools of filthy black
water. Great cities over there were fo/ding up - the
middle sinking down into the abyss, and the sides
bending over together, shutting everything in. High
buildings were tottering and collapsing. Rocks were
splitting, forming deep chasms, into which millions of
souls were flinging themselves. Trumpets were blaring,
flames were crackling, while a powerful wind was
wickedness had flourished for centuries. Then at last
World if not yet on Earth.
Il have already suggested that Swedenborg himself had
been unconsciously involved in the mechanism of this
Judgment. His opening-up of the Word had helped to
bring an inflow of new truth from the Lord into the
cosmic situation, which had stripped away ail fakes and
shams. The evif were beginning to appear outwardly as
they already were inwardly. And was it not perhaps, a
relief to them, no longer having to act a rôle?
On one occasion, he saw thousands of spirits in the air
above him, 100 king like a great dragon which was trying
to sweep away the stars with its tail. Eventually they
were ail cast into the pit. In the end, the whole
Intermediate Region between Heaven and Hell was
c1eared, leaving only the good spirits, who were
somewhat dazed, Iike prisoners released from a
dungeon, or like dead men rising From their tombs.
They were gathered together by special angels, and
were led away with joy to form a new heaven.
There will be no more general Judgments. Ali the
heavens are now complete, and ail the hells are
complete - three of each, corresponding to the three
degrees of the human mind. They are aU "open now;H
55
that is to say, anyone alter death can go to any ofthem. PART VIIl. TUE WRlTlNGS Of' TUE NEW CUURCU.
Moreover, the machinery of Judgment (the trumpet the
bright light of truth, and the wind that blows away
hypocrisies) is still fully operating in the World of Spirits,
Swedenborg witnessed the Last Judgment in the
and it will never again cease to operate; which means
Spiritual World from his summer-house in Stockholm.
that every individual is now judged immediately alter
He must have been busy with his pen at that time, for
death. Spirits cannot accumulate and establish
during the following year 1748 he went to London
themselves in the Intermediate Region as they used to
where he published simultaneously no less than five
do. When a man dies, he begins to move on at once to
books with John Lewis the publisher in Paternoster Row
his final home in Heaven or in Hell. That probably
near St. Pauls - where he had previously published the
explains why the effects of this Judgment are
eight volumes of the Arcana Coelestia. (Knowing as r do
continuing on and on in this world, and power is flowing
the excitement and strain involved in publishing only
down freely into men's hearts from Heaven and from
one small book, my mind boggies at the stunning
Hell. The dead weight has been removed forever; hence
achievement of putting out five at the same time!) The
the unprecedented ferment in the world today.
London Five have already been enumerated:
(1) EarUts in the Universe (2) Ueaven and Uell (3)
Ueavenly Docbines (4) The LastJudgment (5) The
White Uorse
Swedenborg had also written most of the ~Apocalypse
Explained", which, as 1 have reported, remained
unpublished until alter his death.
These books, and ail the Writings of the New Church,
were originally published in Latin - the language of the
educated classes in those days. The first appearance of
the new teachings in any modern language was in
English: part of Vol. Il of Arcana Coelestia, translated as
an experiment by John Marchant, Lewis's proof-reader,
covering Genesis chapter 16 - to be sold in parts. But
the experiment does not appear to have been
successfuL as it was discontinued.
56
Afier the "London Five", ail the future Latin editions Since those early days, works by Swedenborg have
were published in Amsterdam, with the sole exception been translated and issued in the following languages
of the "Intercourse between Soul and Body", which was (in addition, of course, to English):­
published in London in 1769. The Amsterdam dates
Arabie, Burmese, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch,
were as follows:­
Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek,
The Four Leading Docmnes, The Last Judgment Gujarati, Uindi, ltalian, lcelandie, Japanese,
Continued, and The Divine Love and Wisdom Lettish, Magyar, Norwegian, PhiIippino, Polish,
(another major publishing spree!) ail in 1763: The Portuguese, Russian, Serbo-Croat, Sotho,
Divine Providence in 1764: Apocalypse Revealed Spanish, Swedish, TamiL Welsh, Zulu.
in 1766: Conjugial Love in 1768: BriefExposition
in 1769: and True Christian Religion in 1771.
An English version of Brie! Exposition (translated, very
badly we are told, by John Marchant) was published in
London in 1769. Duringthe same year, Manoah Sibley
issued a Latin-English edition of "Intercourse between
Soul & Body". It was re-translated by Hartley and
Cookworthy the fo/,lowing year. They evidently didn't
Iike the emotive word "Intercourse" (1 would have
preferred "Interaction") so instead they issued their
work under the astonishing title "A Theosophie
Lucubration on the Nature of Influx, as it Respects the
Communication and Operation of Soul and Body".

57
 UNIVERSA THEOLOGIA NOVI C~LI ET NOV lE ECCLE511E.
01 fio'., fIII 04 On_ _- Api .cced"""
Apoc;. XIX: 9, hoc f.Clum cn
Ncn(C Junio, OteIJ9, Anao 1770. Hoc: inreUC{lum eIl rcr hzc Dotnini "'\'r~ ..
A""., j.,
Jrll'd
_JIII""'J 1 8 '. .r'..... tIflf" 1I/faJ • ",..., c. . . . "".,., U
M:I.I:Lb. XXJY': 3 1 •
ft,.·

• • • •
792 • De M ......~·"!"Ji Ifto. e!\ ln fi.....'..i 01'0"' de CA<LO 6: J"... ~o, iR
quo l;k:(c,ipn (une u,a ,RidS Mund•• &: qUI1 OmOb horna p>ll mortcm ln Ilium
Mu~um venir. rcripcui edam enSr~tu. ho~inum ibi. Oui, noo novic" aul:
none pcndt quod bomo plf\ morœra Vivat, qui' Q3lUI efl: noma, crc..IU'l Iln:'l·
10 Dci, ~ qUia DominUi il! VCJbo (uo id c!oa."l; It'd q~aliJ VÎra ci (UU"'3 ~ll,
hXlcnus lpolum fuir C'1"Cdirvm cR, quod tunc dkt ADlma, de qua non ahim
kkam (oVC1'Unc, quam 4cul de z:dlCTe lut lere,lci quod fit Pneuma 1 quidt homo~:<
orc ('"rpiru. dUID IDOriaUl'. in quo [illien vir;tle qUI rdidct J rel quod lie ill>r\~I": \'~Ju
qu:llis en oculi. Ib~UC auditu qualil cft auril, & abrq~ loque';. qu;.li. e~ orls._
cum rllOft borna ........ ~ eft homo &: IIbs horno~ ur non (nu :ah·
1er qUlIIm quod Gr in priori Nunc!o; vider, •...sil. loquicur ~ rtC\Jc in pri.
ori 'Murdo; Imbu'ar \ t'urrit, reda. fieut in priorc MunJo; cubat, dormi'. '"
...·i~il•• fi<ll' In priori MuncI<! i edi.6: bibi< lieu. i. priori Mol>Jo; deli.io con­

._6
jUl"li fNitUf Geur iD priori MUD.Io; vcrbo, cft homo qUOld omnia &: fi"ttub.
Es. ~. quod Nan . . fit cdlia&io. (cd cOIMiDulrio viœ, & quoJ Be
.-Jo Quod homo lit ..... homo poli
A , luIle cor....
"""Ha "..­
<UrJlCIIi! _ appara, <oDfbre potdI .. A-'iI \'ifi. Abr.hlmo, 1"1;'­
ri Giud<œi, Danieli, &: .\butilam Pt<JlJheri., CT ';\"1"'11 vifi. iD S."ulch,o 00­
mIni, ~ paRa lanlrodes JOhanIIi, ~ quibus in ArocALYPIf' t'Umprimis ex Ipro
Domino ~ quod cd'tr Homo. ~t pet' utlum &: ptt crum, & c:I.m:n co­
nm ocul~ ilIoN.. iDccDfpicuue haut cft. 'l'Iis polCft it.:l ddiruC', ut non agno­
r<:l', quin, ......fi lnc:œfPiewa •. ~ homo fuerir: Quod viderin. Ipfum, <nt
C,JIU(I i quia ruOC' apc;:rCi runr 0CUli .~NI illonIm, " C'um hi aperiunrur ~ app.l­
mK i la. ~ iD Munda rpirhuali ruar t zque clare, qUftnadmndum ml, Q;J.1(
iD Monde> N..onli. DitI'eralia iaIa bomiDcID ln Muado ..,onli, 6: bomin.:m
la Mol>Jo rpirituoD dl, t":l '* n"
homoÇorpotc rubllaRtioli indu... ille '0­
~t~l~ i:m~ ..:bIC: :acco:r::,cf:: =~·c~:ia~. ~~c rt'w~:
minml mar_lem: Ad . . DOfdl hoato fubftaMiallt vidrre hominem m:ucri3­

If_
km t nec homo ....rcrtaIi (ubftantiilem, ~ di6erentiam inter ma­
œriIIc 6: rubllantiole, quaIio dl, dercribl porâl, rcd oon pauei..
704- E< .ili'jlG lOt -1.polIUm r.......". rd'me, quod in Mo"'n r. ..,;.
tuIJi lin< _ T _ 0 io .taiIIll. quod.... rm< Pbnl'in 6: V.lk••
'-M...... 6:ColIea~ &:_ '0lI~" ":.... il; quod fin. P.'odi"., 1I00li,
Lucl &: hl••; ~ - Uitloï, & laibi P.Ia". &: DoiDuo; mm quod IInl S<rlp­
. . . &~(bI'; '""'' ~ ~; 6: quod font Au,u,n,
a:
A~"
........ ,
"-~l"""
iD CaID _
.....
_6ai ......... &neuf., ~_co"l"" in
... poo:rfealan. S<d difrCr<nli, en;
..
..... ~ ~ il
-=-
_"'1 •
=:..:-~~
_ ..
.•...~ii.::o
1IIrIIuaIl (po6ontur, lia< . . . - 0 cml•• Domino •
~, &qu"!,I ~, eoI comrPOllden.i.,n
.
t . . . r.. ~Jœa &: inde cOl:,iudo·
ialunII fpotIUIUf, a r<llliD< ",iR'DI
eadta&
;9J.

58
 TIIF. OELlOUT8 0 .. WIBDOIl

( . () N .f U 0 1 A LLO V E

TUF. 1'J,E,\SURt;S 01' INSANITY

.9'"~

!olCOltl'Al'OUY LOVE . ." eV.

'"/~.,/tu.#.:-
~~q-~---'
...... ~Vr-A'-y
f'I/(l,ll THE 1..4 TIN
Il ~/'!j
EMANIIEL SWEI>t:NBORG -tu­
~2/_

'l'liE ~Wf,llt;NfJOlln SOCIETY

(bl ""If!'l«1.1.lJ10)
:~ 1I1,.l)lI!oIHIIUIlY >:-TH":Jo7l', I."N'HON'
11191

A spread From the original Latin edition oF 'True
Christian Religion'.
Paragraph No. 791 may be translated:
'Afler this book was tinished, The Lord called
together his twelve disciples; and the next day he
sent them Forth into the whole spiritual world to
preach the gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ
reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ever and ever:
Title page and ny leaf from an English translation
of 'Conjugial Love'. The inscription, with its
curious spelling, indicates that this copy was
presented by 'Eisak Pitman', an inventor oF
5horthand.
59
NBW-CUURCU DAY Questions arise: Was Judas Iscariot included? (He was
one of the twelve who followed Jesus in the world.) And
what actually took place on June 19th - the "gathering
It is not the intention of the Scrapbook to coyer every together", or the "sending forth"? Anyway, the New
detail of Swedenborg's life. However, 1 will pause for a Church has adopted June 19th as NEW-CHURCH DAY,
moment in the year 1770, when he hadjust completed irrespective of the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian
the manuscript of his last great work, "True Christian Calendar"
Religion" - an encyclopaedia of ail the main doctrines 1wonder whether the twelve disciples, when they set out
(except perhaps "Conjugial Love" and "Divine on this other-world crusade, remembered the detailed
Providence",) And, just as the Last Judgment was instructions given to thern by Jesus, when He sent them
released in the spiritual world immediately after the forth on the previous occasion in Galilee, sorne
completion of "Arcana Coelestia", so, after the seventeen-hundred years previously, to proclaim the
completion of "True Christian Religion", another major Coming of the Kingdom of God? (Matthew 10, Mark 6,
event occurred in the spiritual world, which many Luke 9.) Travel was much easier in the spiritual world
people believe to have been the beginning of the Lord's than it had been in ancient Palestine; but the area now
New Church. to be covered ("the whole spiritual world") must have
Swedenborg first announced it as a Memorandum at been daunting! Are they still at it?
the close of the chapter on The Consummation of the
Age (True Christian Religion No. 791) and repeated it in
the re-write of the manuscript l'los. 4 and 108, as
follows:­
-Alter this work was finished, the Lord called
logether uis twelve disciples who bad followed
Uim in the world; and the next day Ue sent them
forth throughout the whole spiritual world, lo
preach the gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ
reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ever and
ever ... This look place on the 19th day of June,
in the year 1770." (almost Midsummer Day. when
maypole dances were being held ail over Sweden.)

60
PARTIX.AMSTERDAMINTEKLUDE.
Swedenborg had been publishing his books in
A few weeks after 19th June 1770 ("New-Church Day")
Swedenborg set out on his twelfth overseas journey,
leaving Stockholm for the last time. He was now 82 ­
too old, one would think, for the rigours of 18th century
travel; but he was hale and hearty. With the manuscript
of 'True Christian Religion" in a stout box, he crossed
Sweden by stage coach to Gothenburg (300 miles
approximately) and took passage from there on a
sailing ship to Amsterdam, where he obtained lodgings
with a family who owned a shop selling chintz and
muslin.
Amsterdam, like Stockholm, is a city of waterways: but
in Amsterdam these are narrow canals with tow-paths
and hump-back bridges. Carillons and church bells fill
the air with music from a dozen steeples. There are
merchants' offices handling trade from the Dutch East
Indies; warehouses, ships' chandlers, diamond cutters,
printers and book binders. Amsterdam was indeed one
of the publishing centres of Europe.
Amsterdam since his scientific days, and was weil
known there. His friend John Cuno gives us in his diary
one of our most cherished insights into the old
gentleman's priva te Iife. He describes him as being
dressed, when at home, in a brownjacket; but in a c1ose­
fitting black velvet coat and breeches wh en out visiting,
and carrying a curious hilted sword. Whisps of white
hair would protrude from under his full-bottomed wig.
At night he shed his wi9- of course, and wore a velvet
skull-cap. He had a large mouth and smiling blue eyes;
and when conversing with people, oit seemed as if the
truth itself was speaking through him.
But on this visit in the autumn of 1770, Swedenborg
was too busy for the social round. He was "working in a
super-human manner" (reported Cuno) making a fair
copy of "True Christian Religion" for the prin ter. and
proof-reading il. He would prepare ten large sheets of
manuscript for the press each week and correct the
previous week's galleys. At this rate, the whole volume
was completed and published by June 1771- exactly a
year after the completion of the first draft in Stockholm.
The publication of T.C.R. was in a sense the fulfilment of
Swedenborg's Iife's work. He wrote to Dr Beyer on April
30th: "After this book appears, the Lord will opera te
both mediately and immediately to establish
throughout the whole of Christendom the New Church
based upon this theology. The New Heaven, out of
which the New Jerusalem is to descend, will soon be
completed."
61
PART X. LONDON POSTWDE.
lt was now the year 1771 and Swedenborg was 83 years
old. The "True Christian Religion" was off the press; and,
except for tying up a few loose strings, his life's work was
completed. Ali he needed now was a state of peace, so
that he could enjoy his other-world contacts without
interruption, and round off the Writings of the New
Church. Where should he spend his final days?
Stockholm was out of the question. No prophet has
honour in his own country! The religious establishment
in Sweden was solidly against him; his doctrines were
declared heretical and violently wicked. Two college
professors in Gothenburg, Ors. Beyer and Rosen, who
supported Swedenborg and were conducting the first
New-Church study groups, had been ordered to
repudiate the Doctrines. They had refused to do so, and
had both been consequently deprived of their jobs. The
matter had been referred to the King, and was rumbling
endlessly in the law-courts.
Swedenborg might of course, have remained in
Amsterdam; but here was the opposite situation. He
had so many friends and supporters here in high
society, that he had hardly any privacy; he was
perpetually on display.
So his thoughts began to turn nostalgically to London,
where he had been happy in his youth and on many
62
other occasions. His English friends had actually urged
him to spend his last days among them; they did not
want to Iionize him, as the Amsterdammers did, but to
sit at his feet and drink the spiritual' waters which flowed
out through him from the Lord. Two of these friends
actually offered to provide him with a financial
allowance, but he had ample means of his own to
supply his frugal needs. ln London he was popular with
working people and with the lower middle classes, who
called him "The Baron", or "The New Jerusalem
Gentleman". ,He was cheerful, friendly and talkative, but
stammered slightly. One report had it that at 81 he was
growing a new set ofteeth! - But this was probably only
a hardening of the gums.
Arriving in Clerkenwell in North London, he took a cab
to Wellclose Square, and made for the home of the
wigmaker, Richard Shearsmith, No. 26 Cold Bath Fields,
where he had lodged on a previous occasion. He
occupied two communicating rooms, the rear one
containing his bed and the front one a round folding
table for his writing materials.
Wellclose Square was on the outskirts of the city in
those days. It was a spa where the wei Ho-do came to
drink medicinal waters. There was a bath-house in a
park, and you passed numerous inns and places of
entertainment offering (had he needed them) such
diversions as bear-baiting, cock-fighting and boxing!
But the district was quiet on the whole, with the songs of
birds, tinkling water, and the laughterofchildren sailing
their boats on the pond.
Being Swedenborg, he couldn't stop writing; and
gradually additional sheets of an "Appendix"to the True
Christian Religion began to pile up on his table. Some of
these sheets he lent to a friend (Dr Messiter) and never
got back. The material which survived occupies 165
pages in the English edition of his posthumous works.
He called it "The Coronis to the True Christian Religion".
The name does not imply that his crowning work
needed a crown! Actually the word "coronis" meant the
flourish of the pen made to indicate the end of a letter,
chapter, or other document; or the elaborate squiggle
which people drew under their signatures in those
more leisurely days. Thus Swedenborg's "coronis" was
the squiggle under the autograph of the T.C.R.!
But the Coronis is not to be dismissed as a mere
squiggle - it had great intrinsic value, if only because it
represents our prophet's last words, and his own
assessment ofhis Iife's work. For example, 1see in these
pages signposts pointing in the two almost opposite
directions in which the New Church was destined to
develop. One way was towards an exclusive
Swedenborgianism, such as one finds supported in the
T.C.R. in the section on the Consummation of the Age.
("The Second Coming of the Lord takes place by means
of a man before whom He has manifested himself in
Person, and whom He has filled with His Spirit to teach
from Him the Doctrines ofthe New Church by means of
the Word:) The other way was towards a broad and
non-distinctive ecumenism, the Doctrines being
injected almost unconsciously into the teachings of the
contemporary old-church establishments. Historically
in England these two approaches were called
'Separatism" and "Non-Separatism", and were
associated in the first place with Hindmarsh
(Separatism) and Clowes (Non-Separatism). In America
they became, roughly, the Academy and the
Convention. For another hundred years or 50, our
theologians will probably be experimenting on how to
blend or synthesize these two opposite approaches.
Here is support for an exclusive attitude, taken from "An
Ecclesiastical History of the New Church" (my copy of
the Coronis p. 144):­
'When the BriefExposition was published (in 1769) the
angelic heaven, from east to west and from south to
north, appeared of a deep crimson colour, with most
beautiful tlowers. This took place before myself and
others. At another time it appeared flamy, beautifully so.
On ail the copies of the book in the Spiritual World was
written 'The Advent ofthe Lord'. 1 also wrote the same,
by command, on two copies in Holland: HIC LIBER EST
ADVENTUS DOMINI. ('This book is the Advent of the
Lord')" ln Holland? Presumably this was at the
publisher's in Amsterdam.
63
And here is Swedenborg's basis for Ecumenicity, taken
From "Invitation to the New Church* (my copy of the
Coronis, p. 85);­
~Hereaftermen are not to be styled Evangelicals,
Reformed, and still less Lutherans and Calvinists, but
CHRISTIANs". (Presumably this would include
Sweden borgians.)
People who féivour this inclusive, non-sectarian view of
the New Church, remember Swedenborg's own modest
disclaimer in "Summaries of the InternaI Sense of the
Prophets and Psalms"; ~A New Church is now being
instituted" (he wrote in 1763) ~which is called in the
Apocalypse the NEW JERUSALEM, to which the things
that are being published by me at the present day will
be of service. It is also being instituted elsewhere."
To return now to the wigmaker's house in Cold Bath
Fields, London. Here the aged Swedenborg enjoyed the
peace and privacy he craved. Cared for by Mrs
Shearsmith and her maid Elizabeth Reynolds, he was
happy and content. The young woman Elizabeth
Reynolds was probably closer to him than any other
mortal at that time; she eventually became Richard
Shearsmith's second wife. We see her fingermark on an
affidavit made by those two before the Lord Mayor of
London at the Guildhall in 1785, testifying that
Swedenborg did not recant his beliefs before dying, as
had been rumoured,
Shortly before Christmas (1771) the ~New Jerusalem
Gentleman" suffered a paralytic stroke and lay in a
64
coma for some weeks, but afterwards recovered. (1
wonder whether he was conscious in the spiritual world
during that time, choosing the site for his future home?)
A circle oftrusted friends visited him From time to time.
Among these were the Swedish Lutheran Pastor, Rev.
Arvid Ferelius; the Anglican Clergyman, Rev. Thomas
Hartley; the Swedish Consul, Christopher Springer; the
Physician, Dr Husband Messiter; and (occasionally) the
Quaker Chemist From Plymouth, William Cookworthy,
said to have been the father of the British porcelain
industry. Through the efforts of these good men, and a
few others, by translation From the Latin, and
publication, and personal testimony - the new
teachings took root in England, and this country
became the mother of the New Church throughout the
world.
One of the first known ~Swedenborgians"was Stephen
Penny of Dartmouth, who obtained a copy of the Arcana
Coelestia through an advertisement, and wrote to the
publisher, John Lewis, expressing his appreciation. It
was probably Stephen Penny who introduced the
Writings to his friend William Cookworthy.
The 5wedish C1lUrch in London where
5wedenborg's remains were rirst laid to rest.
65


WESLEY AND SWEDENBORG
It was at about this time that the Rev. John Wesley,
Founder of Methodism, first began to be aware of
Swedenborg, and was even fascinated by him. He had a
kind oflove-hate attitude. ln his diary he wrote: "1 began
with huge prejudice in favour of Baron Swedenborg.
knowing him to be a pious man, one of strong
understanding. of much learning, and one who
thoroughly believed himself. But 1 could not hold out
long! Any one of his visions put his real character out of
doubt. He is one of the most ingenious, Iively,
entertaining madmen that ever set pen to pa pero But his
waking dreams are so wild, so far remote from both
Scripture and common sense, that one might as easily
swallow the stories of Tom Thumb or Jack the Giant
Killer."
Then an event occurred that somewhat changed
Wesley's opinion. It was in February 1772, when the
aged Swedenborg (fifteen years Wesley's senior) was
bed-ridden in Shearsmith's home in ClerkenwelI.
Wesley, also in London, was planning one of his
revivaJist tours, when an astonishing letter was
delivered to him from Swedenborg. He read it out aloud
66
ta the assembled company, as follows: "' have been
informed in the World of Spirits that you have a strong
desire to converse with me. 1shall be happyto see you, if
you will favour me with a visit. 1 am, Sir, your humble
servant Eman. Swedenborg." Wesley admitted that he
had indeed felt such a desire, but commented that he
had never spoken of it to a single sout! He wrote back to
Swedenborg, saying that unfortunately he was about to
leave on a six-months' journey, but he would visit him
on his return. To this Swedenborg replied that it would
then be too late, as he was to depart this Iife on March
29th (which of course he did).
Wesley seems to have been deeply impressed with this
evidence of ESP, for, visiting Liverpool shortJy
afterwards, and staying with his old friend Richard
Houghton, now one of Swedenborg's followers, he is
reported to have declared in the most solemn manner:
"We might burn ail the old books of theology, for God
has sent us a teacher from heaven, and in the works of
Swedenborg we might learn ail that is necessary for us
to know."*
This favourable opinion, however, did not outlast
Wesley's subsequent study of the "True Christian
Religion", for, on almost every point of doctrine there
expounded (the Trinity, Faith and Charity, the Vicarious
Atonement and so on) he found himself in violent
disagreement. Swedenborg. he concluded, was stark
staring mad, and he warned his followers against him in
a series of bitter and heavily biased articles in his
"Arminian Magazine", which do more discredit to their
'See Compton's 'Lire or Clowes',
author than to his victim! Needless to say, these articles idea!) A pity they didn't get together while on earth; but
produced an equally violent reaction and defence From they surely will have met up long ago in the Spiritual
New-Church authors of the day. The battle was joined, World. And each will now be using his influence with his
and only now are Wesleyans and Swedenborgians followers on earth, to co-operate with the Lord (whom
beginning to come to terms with one another's view­ they both ,Ioved with heartand soul) in the making ofall
points. things new.
Apart from Wesley's nervous and foolish assault on the
New-Church Doctrines in the "Arminian Magazine', 1do
not wish to disparage either the man or his work. 1
believe that both Swedenborg and Wesley were, in their
own ways, instruments of the Lord's Second Coming,
first.-fruits of the Last Judgment. But Wesley was not
interested in any New Church. He took for granted the
authority of St.Paul and the accepted theology of the
Establishment, and he was indignant with Swedenborg
because he didn't. Wesley's principal concern was not
with theology at ail, but with PEOPLE (and maybe we in
the so-called New Church could usefully learn
something From him in this respect). He gave to
PEOPLE, mostly the middle and lower classes, a dignity
as sons and daughters of God - a consciousness of
"sins forgiven, man restored", and a yearning for a
c10ser union with God through Christ.
Wesley's work was vital at that crisis in history; it saved
the human race. It blew the embers of the old dying
Church into flame, providing living material From which
a New Church could eventually be built up. Actually,
Wesley and Swedenborg were, without realizing it,
complementary to one another (though Wesley, in his
later state of mind, would have been horrified at the

67
PART XI. DBATU AND f'UNERAL. But his main legacy, of course, was spiritual. He
bequeathed il, free oftax, to ail mankind! You and 1 are
among the legatees. But we must daim our inheritance
before we can receive it: and we do this by studying the
Doctrines outlined in his writings; and, in the Lord's
Swedenborg predicted to Elizabeth Reynolds the exact strength, by living according to them. If we do this, we
date ofhis death. She said afterwards, "He seemed to be shall become spiritual milJionaires.
as pleased as if he were going on a merry-making"!
When the day arrived, March 29th1772, he asked her
and Mrs Shearsmith what time it was. They answered
'Five o'dock". He thanked them, and slipped quietly
away into the spiritual realm, never again to return.
Previously he had required, as it were, a 'Visitor's Visa"
to enter there; now he was to become a permanent
resident.
The funeral of his material body took place on April 5th
1772. It was conducted by Pastor Ferelius, in the so­
called Ulrica Eleonora Church in the Ratdiffe Highway,
Princes' Square, east of the Tower of London. (Note
Ulrica Eleonora's name again; it appeared at the
beginning of this Scrapbook. She was the little princess
who was almost Swedenborg's twin!) There were
thirteen mourners and two coaches. The church was
full. The choir sang two anthems. The body was sealed
in a lead container which was placed in a wooden coffin,
and depo~ited in the vaults of the church.
Swedenborg left behind him .L400 plus some small
change, a gold watch, a gold-headed walking stick. his
Hebrew Bible, and four or five large manuscript books,
'one as large as a baker's shop book".

68
TUE SKULL
It is ironical that Swedenborg had far more attention
paid to his physicaJ body alter he had died and lelt il,
than he ever enjoyed while he was alive in il ln fact
millions of people might never have heard of
Swedenborg at ail, had it not been for the newspaper
headlines concerning the sale of his skull!
Altogether, it seems that his coffin has been opened
and his body examined no less than seven or eight
times to date. The first time was about eighteen years
alter his death, when in 1790 a ~foreign gentleman of
the Rosicrucian sect probably DrThomas Thorild From
N
,
Sweden, visited his fellow countrymen c.R.
Nordenskjold and C.B. Wadstrom, New-Church
members then resident in London, and told them that
in his opinion, Swedenborg had not really died; that the
funeral had been a sham and there was no corpse in the
coffin. To test out this ridiculous notion, the three men
went to the Swedish Church in Ratcliffe Highway and
persuaded the sexton to allow them to open the coffin.
This meant removing the wooden lid and sawing
through the lead envelope above the shoulder. It was
immediately evident from the stench that Swedenborg
had been no (ess mortal than other men! A few days
la ter, five or six other New-Churchmen, including Robert
Hindmarsh, hearing what had been done, were
prompted by curiosity to go along and see the bodily
remains for themselves.
Nothing further happened until 1817, forty-five years
alter Swedenborg's death. One day in July of that year,
the funeral was being conducted of Baroness Mary von
Nolcken, widow of the late Swedish Ambassador, and
her remains were being interred in the vaults of the
Swedish Church. One of the mourners was a certain
Ludvig Granholm, a retired captain of the Swedish Navy,
now resident in Lonûon. Glancing idly at the coffins in
the vault he noticed one with a loose lid, and read the
name on it: "Swedenborg Hoping ta make something
N
•
out of il, he slipped back into the vault alter the party
had lelt, opened the coffin, and absconded with the
skull under his overcoat. He took it ta the house of the
lawyer J.I. Hawkins, a well-known New-Churchman, son
of Rev. Isaac Hawkins, andtried ta sell it ta him as a relie,
but was driven away. He took it ta several other New­
Church people, with the same result. It was still in his
possession when he died about a year later, January
28th 1819.
The pastor of the Swedish Church, Rev. Johan Wahlen,
being cha plain of the Swedes in London, attended his
deathbed, and learned of the skull. Naturally he
retrieved il, and we have a record that he presented it to
a meeting of the Church Council on July 4th 1819. They
decided to wait until the vault was opened for another
funeral before bothering to replace the skull. In the
meantime it was loaned to the distinguished New­
Churchman Charles Augustus Tulk, M.P., for display
among many other skulls in his phrenological museum.
Hearing of the situation, a New-Church friend ofTulk's
in Sweden, Countess Margaretha von Schwein, wrote to
69
him earnestly requesting that the skulJ should be
returned at once to its proper place. So, on March 25th
1823, Tu'lk, together with Wahlen and Nordenskjold,
walked with the precious relic to Ratcliffe Highway. On
the way they stopped at a studio in Holborn and had a
plaster cast made, which was used to make the
celebrated bust. Incidentally, Tulk seems to have kept
back the smalJ bones of the ear, which eventually came
into the possession of the Swedenborg Society.
Sorne time later, a rumour began to circula te, and even
reached the Times Newspaper, that the wrong skuli had
been taken from the phrenological museum, whereas
"the authentic skulJ of Emanuel Swedenborg" was on
sale at an antique shop in the East End of London.
Some effort was made to trace this second skull, but the
only person who seemed to know about it was by this
time locked away in a mental asylum! Still the rumour
spread.
ln October 1853 the outer wooden case of the coffin
was found to be so damaged that a new one was made.
Then, in 1908, the Swedish Church in Ratcliffe Highway
was itself demolished; and, on April 8th of that year,
Swedenborg's mortal remains were conveyed to
Paddington station and so by train to Dartmouth where
they were placed aboard the Swedish cruiser Fylgia, and
shipped to Karlskrona, the Swedish naval base on the
Baltic, arriving on April 18th. Alter some discussion as
to the coffin's final resting place, it was conveyed by
train to Uppsala on May 19th, and eventually placed in a
sarcophagus next to that ofcarl von Linne (Linnaeus) in
70
Uppsala cathedral, where it now lies. The sarcophagus
was dedicated on November 19th, 1910.
Owing, however, to the persistent rumour of the "other
sku1l", the coffin had previously been opened on May
29th 1908, in the presence of the cathedral Chapter
and representatives ofthe Royal Society of Science; and
the skeleton, with particular reference to the skull, was
submitted to a thorough and exhaustive examination
by the anatomist Dr J. Vilh. Hultkrantz. The work was
completed by June 13, and a full account of the
investigation, with numerous photographs, was
published by the Royal Society of Uppsala on May 6th,
1910.
No one who has studied this highly technical and
professional report can have the slightest doubt that
the skull in the coffin, and therefore in the sarcophagus,
was the genuine one. It fitted the lower jaw (which had
not been removed by the t'hief); it harmonized perfectly
with the skeleton; and photos of a plaster model made
of il, fiUed neatly over the portraits painted of the Seer
during his Iifetime.
However, in fact, the rival skull (still claiming to be
genuine) was discovered in London in March 1912. It
was sent to Uppsala and thoroughly examined; but it
was found to have been suffering from a congenital
disease called Scaphocephaly, which effectively put it
out of the running. What the authorities eventually did
with the skull, 1 don't know.
Swedenborg's remains being conveyed from the
Swedish Church in London to be returned to his
homeland,

71
Casket containing 5wedenborg's remains on the deck of the 5wedish frigate 'Fulgia',

72
So now we come down to the nineteen-sixties, when
the world press and TV (normally so taciturn about
Swedenborg) suddenly broke their conspiracy of
silence to announce that yet another of his
"authentic" skulls has turned up, somewhere in
Wales! It was offered for sale by auction at Sotheby's
in London, who listed it in their catalogue as: "An
original Skull, apparently of Emanuel Swedenborg
(1688-1772) the celebrated Swedish scientist,
savant, philosopher and theologian." The auction
took place on 6th March 1978, and the skull was
purchased by the Royal Academy of Science,
Stockholm, for ;fl,500. A representative of the
Swedish Embassy is reported to have said that it
would be returned to its "rightful" place in Uppsala
Cathedral; we are left to presume that it ended up
with the other skull in Swedenborg's sarcophagus
there.
Recently we have heard that the auctioneers
deliberately refrained from submitting their bill to
the Royal Academy of Sciences, so that they
themselves bore the entire cost. If this is true, then it
is was a remarkable and perhaps unique act of
good-will on Sotheby's part.
But was the skull in fact Swedenborg's7 Probably we
shall never know for sure. How many skulls did he
have anyway7 Others may be forthcoming in the
future - quite a draw at ;fl,500 each!
Never mind - it doesn't really matter.

73
Sale of
skull
ends a
200-year
tale
lh our ,-'Tt Salf'A
torrt'~pc)nd"l
lm: ~"ULL .r Emaml.1
~~~ ,·d ..nbors. 'h~ S>C"1.-ntt5t..
il ~l rlo oph€"T, 1 nd theologll n •
~;.;"old al Solheb)"~ ye-slrr·
da\ for l1.~O. Il ••,. bnu~hl
b\ th .. S",rdbh Royal At.d·
('!lI\ (Ir Sclf'"rt',
1'1 1111)' Jaln th,. nst ur thr
no})I('m.n·~ remains ln llpp.
\.jl:ll ralhf"dral or tW! kepl _'th
• "m..JI .. ol~dlon of hi.s rcll('~
,.. . nrd b)' lbt" acadtmy ln
.tockholnt.
T tt ,..lt ~nfh an tltr.,
onUn.I"" and nlanbrr se""
o. f»\of'n't.!. wharh llarled 500n
aftr.-r SWfflrnborJ!:'M dratb ln
LAndon ln 1;;%. lit wu bUf'
j,.c1 in the Sw~lsh Churc:h ln
Prlll(('S Squ.n, London. bul
lhl' grlvr WI' opl'nec! ln Tbe Swedl'nborg .kuU whlch was 50101 for iJ,lI~O H Sotheby's ye.terd ay
.,Imut 178ft .... CIU".. 'cml~
tu'gfl1(' h'a~d lhlt Ihe body ron(f.rnln~ Ihe ,kull hln' not llltmp. on lh. cronlulft. Cllurch, or N.w Cllurob,
/1 ... 11 bt'("n litoltn h .n .blt 10 luml h, Indll'" "othl'b)". c.I.logu. dH' wllith hll .dhor~nts ln 8rl,
du. Il " Onel proo" or Identlly crlbe. th. ,"ull II· uDlllually 1.ln, Ill.. ConUnent. 11101 th..
Thu ln 1816 or 1817 Ih.
.I.ull "L' .lol~n-. S",odl.h or Ihl. kull ,,'Ith S.. ed.n·
horlll:'5 traniunl. But to&etbtr
Ion, .1lCI narro., , 0' dor"
h'ory colour, l.whone 1••k1nJ:,
unlled 81a~•.
rna-.lA"r mlrln,.r " ... AWipeclM
of the: trime. Th.. rf'~l or tb.
remaina wrrt exhumNi ln
Ille y cl" "" slron, 'D Incll·
collon ln thl. dlrecUon thal
.nd .1111 mar'" 0'
a ~c.nl
IrepaltDJn, ..hen • porllon or
8at
l_.her
aho • 1".1 pbl·
odnll.t, hel~·
Ins r..",.rkable Yle.. altoul
1908 .nd .. I.. n 10 UppsaJ.
f"alhf'dnl Il thr rtqutll or
the ~"t'dbh (;o\~rnm"nt. Th.
Ibey m.y Ile r.,ardod Il proc­
linl1y cofttIUJiIH!."
Thl. me nI Ih.1 a ."ull
~~~:d
olllerwi
;::.1C1~:Ji1':~~~~ .~":
ln , .... c.ndlll....
'unellen. 0'
mo".ular phy"'" and tII.
Ihe Ilra1n wllith
.~r<\ contlrlled .nly ln Ihis
."ull _,1'" known at lhb tin...' ..hleh had ~en ...lIh Ihe resl w1lh an .UreeU•• paU ....•
co .... In Ihe hand.
luUqut' dra.tr.
'n0' or lh. rem.lno Il Uppsala "10
a lullolltute.
S denbor.', .kull _uld
lie 0' 1 Inl.rest 10 a pbre­
c~nlury.

111
HI. d_end'Dta. who Il...
Sw~en. r.,rett~ 11'1l~r·
"('lroU"«:' t~t. .~r. dont
i)n ft Irom UIRf' la li... Ind
Th• •knll "". IOld ,e.'l<'r· n.loll.' beca .r Uae "'an'. day'. . . 1.., a.r.re It Setheby's Newspaper cutting
lhe Ialal report, pubU.bed b, ~~ :to' u:;,~ri~:d rl~o;:c~w::; ..tro.rdJnary .,llIn., Il. la .e· I:ad .. lIm.lad 'hal th... kull
'he .cad.IllY 0'
Sclen.e ln
1~60, ..Id,; • The hlalOrlcol,
r.lhw. Re .... In~rntM ..
phr... IOID', th• • It'-· .r
1II~",b<lnl~ . . a Uaeel.llan
.h_ Ylewo - . . ",prIS" •
hl"", rthelI.x. HI. r...
l1li.111 re~1I up le 1.,480.
SeUa.._,'. alM ..Id Y r·
and photograph concerning
'Ihe Swedenborg skull',
day a lar.e . . .ber el ...
anllomlral. thtmJal, and
ph\.loleRlcal In.flI,\lpU.... ~..s.:s ~~vlUi.!:.'"::'-': I
,,.e _ _ u _Ide..._ . .tIl,
......_ ~~_.~~~,eaWI . . on
PART XII. IN ETEKNITY.
Someone has said: "If you want to find a friend at a
party, you won't look for him in the doakroom where he
has left his overcoat; you will look for him on the da(lce
H
floor.
So, ifyou want to find Emanuel Swedenborg today, you
won't look for him in the coffin or sarcophagus (with or
without the skull). Vou will expect to find him busy and
happy in one orthe uplands ofheaven. Doubtless he will
be living in a pleasant but modest homestead
containing a laboratory, a Iibrary, a sanctuary, and an
office with a large writing table, pursuing his Iife's work
of channelling the Lord's love and wisdom into the
universal New Church -" in heaven and on earth. 1can
imagine him also relaxing sometimes by playing
heavenly music on his Iittle organ in a celestial summer­
house!
Will he be living aJone, 1 wonder? - or will he have
acquired a wife?
Since his "death there have been psychics, such as
H
, Frederick Gyllenborg, had been President of the Board
Arthur Ford of Philadelphia, and the Indian Sadhu
Sundar Singh, who daim to have contacted
Swedenborg in the spiritual world. As recently as 1928­
29, The Sadhu reported that he had often met the
"Venerable Swedenborg there. "He occupies a high
H
place wrote the Sadhu. "He is a glorious man, but
H
, therefore completely divorced from his former wife.
modest and ever ready to serve. H
And again
(interestingly): ·Swedenborg's name has been
changed, to one which expresses his high position and
office, and his most beautiful character (Another
H
•
change ofname?) "He is exceedingly happy, and always
busy in helping others. (A pity his final name could not
H
be recorded in earth script!)
But is he still a bachelor? No one seems to have
brought back any information concerning his wife! Yet
according to Swedenborg's own testimony, given in his
book "Conjugial Love a'll the angels are married pairs:
H
,
so naturally there has been speculation among his
followers as to the identity of Swedenborg's own
consort. Who is this angel woman who shares his
intellectuallife, who motiva tes him by her love? Had she
been one of his friends or acquaintances on earth?
It was rumoured that Charles Augustus Tulk had told
Garth Wilkinson that he had heard someone say that
Swedenborg had confided in someone that his consort
on the other side might be a lady named Elizabeth
Sljarncrona, Countess Gyllenborg. The Gyllenborgs had
been intimate with Swedenborg in Stockholm for a
number of years, and Elizabeth's husband, Count
of Mines. He had died in 1759, and Swedenborg
reported that he had rapidly degenerated in the
spiritual world, revealing that inwardly he had been ofa
hypocritical disposition, consumed with self-love. He
was actually now in one of the lower regions, and
75
Elizabeth survived the Count by ten years, during which LIST OF VALUABLES
she was Swedenborg's close neighbour in HOrflsgatan, 1. A beautiful red chest,

Stockholm. She is said to have been of a devout nature;

consisting of live rows,

she herself composed and published a volume of

live drawers in each row.

meditations from the Word, entitled: "Mary's - the

Better Part _She is known to have presented a copy to 2. A handsome dress and a handsome cap.
Swedenborg, which he, not she, autographed! - the 3. A liWe crown with live small diamonds,
opposite to what present-day authors are expected to which is wom in heaven
do when they give away copies of their books! on one side of the head.
Shortly after the Countess passed on, in 1769, 4. A beautiful liWe rose

Swedenborg left Stockholm for the last time, to go to containing a very brilliant diamond,

Amsterdam to publish "True Christian Religion-. Three whicb laler was set in a golden ring.

years later, he himself died in London.
His heirs found, written in his own hand in his personal
copy of the Latin T.C.R., a List of Valuables, such as
people make of their jewellery in their wills. This is the
nearest to a will that Swedenborg ever got.
S. A tiara, or decoration for the head.
6. A necklace of diamonds,
and a pendant of gold with a diamond.
7. A bracelet of diamonds.
8. Ear-rlngs of three diamonds each side.
9. A box in a casket

wherein are shining crystals,

signifying regeneration 10 elemity.

10. Something precious,

whicb was placed in a beautiful box
on November 28th. 1770.
Il, A jewelled pendant
containing a beautiful diamond.
12. A handsome hat for me.
13. Something precious
which cannot be seen by spirits
but only by an angel. May 28th. 1771.
14, A cane with a beautiful gold knob,
Swedenborg's Summer'house as it now stands
preserved in Skansen, Stockholm. August 13th. 177 I.
76
(On the dates mentioned - Nov. 1770, May and August
1771 - Swedenborg was in Amsterdam, seeing T.C.R.
through the press.)
For whom were these "Valuables· intended? The cap
and gold-headed cane were obviously for his own use;
but the other objects mentioned were apparently for a
lady - his future bride perhaps? And she must have
been an angel - see No. 13.
It is rather touching that this crusty old bachelor of 84
should be so tenderly contemplating his future wife,
and lovingly imagining her resplendent in jewellery,
including a Iittle crown with five small diamonds worn
on one side of her head!
After Swedenborg's decease his heirs greedily searched
everywhere for these Valuables. Ali they could find was
his cane, which is now in the possession of the
Swedenborg Society in London. But we can close this
Scrapbook picturing him as he undoubtedly is NOW ­
blissfully happy and content in a high heaven with his
beautiful angel wife (whoever she may bel - he and she
seeming from a distance to be one complete individual,
radiant with Iight reflected From the Sun of heaven.

Swedenborg as deplcted on his Sarcophagus in

Uppsala Cathedral.

77
78
 SWEDENBORG - CURONOLOGICAL TABLE
Year Age

1688 STOCKHOLM. Emanuel Swedberg born in royal barracks, 29 January.

Rev. Jesper Swedberg, Regimental and Royal Chaplain,( his father ).

9 1 STOCKHOLM

1690 2

1 3

2 4 Jesper, pastor of VINGAKER for a few months,

then appointed Professor of Theology at Uppsala University.

3 5 UPPSALA

4 6

5 7

6 8 Jesper appointed Rector of University, and Bishop of Swedish churches overseas.

Sara Behm, Emanuel's mother, dies.

7 9 Jesper marries Sara Bergia.

8 10 House in Uppsala destroyed by fire. New house built and dedicated.

9 11 UPPSALA

1700 12

1 13

2 14

3 15 Jesper appointed Bishop of SKARA; family moves to Brunsbo Estate.

Emanuel stays at Uppsala University, living with Erik Benzelius.

79
 1704 16 UPPSALA

5 17

6 18

7 19

8 20

9 21 Emanuel defends and publishes his Graduation thesis,

and then (in June) joins his family at Brunsbo. Aiso publishes sorne Latin verses.

1710 22 At BRUNSBO. Studies organ. Sends whale skeleton to Uppsala.

Visits Polhammer at Stjernesund. In September, leaves for London.

1 23 LONDON. Practical crafts and trades. Astronomy. Latin verses.

2 24 Brass instrument. Aigebra, Geometry. The Longitude. Visits Oxford.

ln the autumn, to Holland.

3 25 HOLLAND. Congress of Utrecht. Glass grinding in Leyden.

To Paris, where he is sick (July to August).

4 26 To ROSTOCK, via Hamburg. List of mechanical inventions.

Charles XII arrives at Stralsund, having escaped from imprisonment in Turkey (Nov. 21)
Prepares for siege. (Queen Anne dies in England.)

5 27 Publishes Latin poems in Griefswalde. Escapes From siege of Stralsund.

Returns home to Brunsbo (Aug.) Visits Stockholm and Uppsala.

6 28 BRUNSBO (March) Publishes first volume of "Daedalus Hyperboreus".

ln December, to Lund, to Charles Xll's court.
Polhammer ennobled, name changed to Po/hem.
The King, on Polhem's recommendation, appoints Emanuel "Assessor Extraordinary" to College of
Mines, and Assistant to Polhem.

80
1717 29 Fully occupied with "Daedalus" and assisting Polhem in big engineering projects.
Visits Gothenburg, Stjernsund, Stockholm. Meets Maria and Emerentia Pol hem.

8 30 Publishes works on Aigebra, finding the Longitude, and motions of the earth and planets.
Siege of Fredrikshall. Emanuel organizes portage of ships, Sept. 1718.
Charles Xii killed.

9 31 Queen Ulrica Eleonora (Charles Xll's sister) ennobled the Swedberg family ­
name changed to SWEDENBORG.
Emanuel writes scientific treatises.

1720 32 Sara Bergia dies (April). Jesper marries Christina Arrhusia (Dec.)
Emanuel begins writing on anatomy.

1 33 (2nd foreign journey) Copenhagen Hamburf} Amsterdam, Aix, Cologne.

Emanuel writes on Geometrie expia nation of Chemistry and Physics and fire.

2 34 Leipzig. "Mliscellaneous Observations", M'ines of Saxony, and in Hartz Mts.

Back through Stralsund to Stockholm. Writes on mining methods.

3 35 Presents memorials to Diet on financial reforms, rolling mills, etc.

4 36 (July) Formally appointed "Assessor" at the College of Mines.

Work on his own mines at Axmar.

5 37 Writes on the mechanism of soul and body; cosmology, anatomy.

6 ·38 STOCKHOLM. Working in College of Mines, with visits to provinces.

7 39
8 40
9 41

81
1730 42 (Bishop Jespers residence, Brunsbo, destroyed by fire)

1 43 Sick, April-May.

2 44
3 45 (3rd foreign journey) Stralsund, Berlin Dresden Prague, Carlsbad;
back to Prague, and thence to Leipzig.

4 46 At Leipzig, publishes "Opera Philosophica" and "Prodromus".

H'ome to Stockholm, via Brunswick.

5 47 (Death of Bishop Jesper, aged 82)

6 48 (4th foreign journey) via Linkoping, to Copenhagen Hambur~ Amsterdam, Rotterdam,

Antwerp, PARIS.
Singular dreams recorded.

7 49 PARIS. Studies anatomy at University.

8 50 Visits ltaly via Lyons. Turin (March) Milan (danger From vetturino) Bergamo, Verona, Vicenza,
Padua, to VLNlCE.
Thence to Florence, Pisa, Siena, to ROML. Interview with Pope Clement XII.

9 51 From Rome back to Paris, via F'Iorence and Qenoa. On to Amsterdam (Dec.)

1740 52 AMSTERDAM. Publishes Part 1 of "Economy". Saw flashing Iights. Psychic experiences begin.
Returns to STOCKHOLM (Oct.) Controversy with Celsius re Declination of magnetic field.
Wrote on Brain and Fibres.

1 53 STOCKHOLM, College of Mines. "Hieroglyphic Key". "Rational Psychology", "Economy" Part II.

2 54 STOCKHOLM. "Ontology". "Generative Organs". "Five Senses".

82
TRANSITION PERlOn

1743 55 Buys 43 Hornsgatan. Begins 5th foreign journey - recorded in "Journal of Dreams".
(July 1743-0ct. 1744)
Ystad, Stralsund, ffamburfJ; Amsterdam (Oct.)
Regular psychic experiences, interpreted in "Journar.

4 56 The ffague. Publishes "Animal Kingdom". pts 1 & II.

The Lord appears to him in Delft. April 6-7, marked in Journal "N.B. 'N.B. N.B.".
To London (May 16) Lodged with Brockmer. Begins "Worship & Love of God". (Oct.)

5 57 LONDON. "Animal Kingdom" Pt. III. "Worship & Love of God" Pts 1 & Il.
Vision at Inn (April) Eyes opened into spiritual world.
Home to Stockholm (July). Begins "Adversaria N
•

N
6 58 "Adversaria and "Index Biblicus". Moved into 43 Homsgatan.

7 59 STOCKHOLM. Finishes "Adversaria". Begins "Spiritual Diary".

Vision of "Nunc Licet" (Feb). Retires from the College of M,ines.
Departs for Amsterdam (6th foreign journey). Full illumination Aug. 7th.

FULL ILWMINATION

8 60 AMSTERDAM. "Glorification throughout the whole spiritual worJd re Advent of the Lord" (Sept. lst)
To London (Oct.) with manuscript of "Arca na Coelestia" Vol. 1.

9 61 LONDON. "AC.!." published. Index to AC. begun.

Spends summer and autumn in Holland, and winter in Aix-la-Chapelle.

1750 62 AIX. Germany, home to Stockholm.

AC. Vol. Il published in London, in parts, in Latin and English translation by Marchant.

83
 1751 63 STOCKHOLM. Arcana Vol. III published in London (Latin only)

2 64 Vol. IV

3 65 Vols. V and VI

4 66 Vol. VII

5 67 (No Arcana) Memorial on Liquor trame.

6 68 Arcana Vol. VIII published in London (Completed work)

7 69 LAST JUDGMENT in Spiritual World.

8 70 To LONDON (7th foreign journey) Publishes the ~London Five",

viz (1) Earths in Universe, (2) Heaven and Hell, (3) Last Judgment (4) N.J. & Heavenly Doctrine
(5) White Horse.
Begins writing ~Apocalypse Explained", - abandoned before completion.

9 71 Returns to Stockholm, via Gothenburg ­ ~sees" Stockholm fire from Gothenburg (July).

1760 72 STOCKHOLM. Memorials on metal currency. Writes ~L.J. Post".

1 73 Various tracts. Marteville Receipt and Queen's Secret.

2 74 To Amsterdam (8th journey) with manuscripts for publication.

(Death of Peter III) Returns home. Begins writing ~Prophets & Psalms".

3 75 Completes ~Prophets & Psalms" (not published.) Writes ~Inlaying Marble". (June) back to
Amsterdam (9th journey).
Publishes (1) Four Leading Docts. (2) Last Judgment Continued. (3) Divine Love and Wisdom.

4 76 (4) Divine Providence. On to London to interview Royal Society. Back home to Stockholm.

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 1765 77 STOCKHOLM. Finishes "Spiritual Diaryn.
(lOth journey) via Gothenburg (Tells Bolander about fire in his mill) to Amsterdam.

6 78 Amsterdam, publishes "Apocalypse Revealed".

To London, to see Royal Society about Longitude. Back home to Stockholm.

7 79 STOCKHOLM, writing "Conjugial Love".

8 80 (llth journey) Elsinore, Zurich, AMSTERDAM. Publishes "Con. Love".

Trouble begins to brew in Gothenburg with Beyer and Rosen.

9 81 AMSTERDAM. Pub. "Brief Exposition" (Hic Liber). (April) to Paris for a French edition of "B.E."
Refused.
n
To London, where an English ed. of "B.E. is published, (translated by Marchant).
Writes and publishes "Intercourse. (Swed. is called "The N.J. Gentleman".)
Returns home to Stockholm (Oct).

1770 82 STOCKHOLM. Conflict re Beyer and Rosen rages. Swedenborg appeals to the king.
Writes "True Christian Religion", New-Church Day, 19th June 1770. To Amsterdam (July).

1 83 AMSTERDAM. Publishes T.C.R. in June. (Aug) to The Hague. (Sept) to London. Lodged with
Shearsmith.
An attack of paralysis before Christmas. Wrote "Ecclesiastical History" and "Coronis".

2 84 LONDON. Note to Wesley. Died March 29th. Buried, Princes Square, April 5th.
(Coffin removed to Uppsala April 7th 1908)

After the "London Five" (1758) ail the Latin Editions were published in Amsterdam except "Intercourse", which
was published in London.

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Cover: 'StillLife. An Allegory 0/ the Mznities 0/Human Life'

by Harmen Steenwyck
RejJroduced by courtesy 0/ theTrustees, TheNational Gallery, London.
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