Emanuel Swedenborg: a biography

Preface

I HERE present to English readers a first attempt towards a connected Biography of Swedenborg, fully sensible of my own deficieneies for such an undertaking. But my studies have seemed to require it of me at a period when the exchange of thought and learning is freer than heretofore, and when each man’s wares are expected in the market. My first end will be satisfied if it renders an author, hitherto unknown from his great peculiarity, and difficult of access from his bulk, an object of some knowledge to the literary and intelligent classes.

In fulfilling my design I have endeavored to keep always in view, that I am mating a life and not pleading a cause. Still I have written the life affirmatively, beeause I could not help it. The method has its advantages; for as our Carlyle says, “sympathy is the first essential towards insight.” Nothing however will better please me, than a fair biography by another, from an opposite point of view.

For whatever I have said, I alone am responsible.

VI

PREFACE.

No body of persons is chargeable with my sentiments in the work. While writing it, I have had no audience before me but the public.

I have every where made use of the most authentic documents and sources.

The reader who desires a further elucidation of Swedenborg’s philosophy, necessarily brief in a popular life, will find more on the subject in the Introduction to my translation of the Animal Kingdom, and in my Introductory Remarks to Mr. Clissold’s version of the Economy : I would also refer him to Mr. Strutt’s translation of Swedenborg’s Chemical Specimens, and to Mr. Chssold’s, of the Principia, and to my Popular Sketch of Swedenborg’s Philosophical Works.

I have omitted no tolerably authenticated singularities of the subject of this Memoir. Such things are odd in the hfe of particular persons, because we do not understand the life. They either enlarge our apprehension, or measure our dullness. I have said the worst of Swedenborg that I honestly can : it will be a good voice that says the lawful best. I have not attempted it.

Hampstead, Oct. 5, 1849.

Part I

There is, in the present day, a constantly increasing enquiry among intelligent persons, respecting the life and labors of Swedenborg, whose name begins to be whispered, with more or less respect, and with undefined feelings, throughout Christendom ; and it is the intention of the following pages to give a short account of that author’s career, to serve as a guide to those readers who are interested in the subject, and to facilitate them in pursuing it for themselves. We shall dogmatize but little in the narrative, but chiefly state facts, and accompany them with a few comments. We are no followers of Swedenborg, although we accept his views of Christianity, but not because he discovered them, but because they were there to be discovered, and are true. The truth, we believe, is not arrested or contained by any man, but as soon as found, the mind may pass from that level, and rise from it as a vantage ground to new truths. It is, therefore, in the service of the public, and not of Swedenborg, that we write these pages ; for the time has come when every enlightened man and woman ought, for their own sakes, to know of Swedenborg and his pretensions.

For consider the case. Here was an author, flourishing in the last century, whose principal works were written

LIFE OF SWEDENBORG.

from 1721 to 1772, and who, enjoying at first a good reputation as a scientific and practical man, saw that reputation gradually expire as his own mind unfolded in his works, until at length he was only known as a visionary, and the fact of his early career was scarcely remembered by his few surviving contemporaries. There was every reason why his works died to that age. He had a firm faith, from the first, in the goodness of God, in the powers of the mind, in the wisdom and easiness of creation, and in the immoveable firmness of revelation ; later on, a belief too in spiritual existence, in a sense intelligible to all mankind. In his case, there was a breaking of shell after shell, — a rolling away of delusion after delusion, until the truth was seen to be itself real — to be the true creation, the world above and before the world, of which mortal creatures are made. How could so substantial a personage — a man whose spirit and its relations were a body and a force — be seen at all in the last century, when the public wave ran in spring-tides towards materialism, frivolity, and all conventionalities ? The savage might as easily value a telescope or a theodolite as Europe estimate a Swedenborg at such an era. Accordingly, in proportion as he transcended brute matter and dead facts, he vanished from its sight, and was only mentioned with ridicule as a ghost-seer — the next thing to a ghost. But how stands the matter now ? The majority, it is true, know nothing of Swedenborg ; and it is for them we write. But the vast majority of those who do know — and the number is considerable in all parts of the civilized w'orld — regard him with respect and affectionate admiration ; many hailing him as the herald of a new church upon earth ; many as a gift of the same provident deity who has sent, as indirect messengers, the other secular leaders of the race, — the great poets, the great philosophers, the guiding intellects of the sciences ; many also still looking towards his works in order to gain instruction from them.

GROUNDS FOR WRITING IT.

and to settle for themselves the author’s place among the benefactors of his kind. We ourselves are in all these classes, allowing them to modify each other ; and perhaps, on that account, are suitable to address those who know less of the subject, for we have no position to maintain but the facts of the case.

Now whence this change in public opinion ? It has been the most silent of revolutions, a matter almost of signs and whispers. Swedenborg’s admirers have simply kept his books before the public, and given them their good word when opportunity offered. The rest has been done over the heads of men, by the course of events, by the advance of the sciences, by our new liberties of thought, by whatever makes man from ignorant, enlightened, and from sensual, refined and spiritualized. In short, it is the w'orld’s progress under Providence which has brought it to Swedenborg’s door. For where a new truth has been discovered, that truth has said a courteous word for Swedenborg ; where a new science has sprung up and entered upon its conquests, that science has pointed with silent-speaking finger to something friendly to, and suggestive of, itself in Swedenborg ; where a new spirit has entered the world, that spirit has flown to its mate in Swedenborg ; where the age has felt its own darkness and confessed it, the students of Swedenborg have been convinced that there was in him much of the light which all hearts were seeking. And so forth. The fact then is, that an unbelieving century could see nothing in Swedenborg ; that its successor, more trustful and truthful, sees more and more ; and strong indications exist that in another five-and-twenty years the field occupied by this author must be visited by the leaders of opinion en masse, and whether they will or no ; because it is not proselytism that will take them there, but the expansion and culmination of the truth, and the organic course of events. The following pages will have their end if they

B 2

LIFE OF SWEDENBORG.

be one pioneer of this path which the learned and the rulers are to traverse.

Emanttel Swedenborg was horn at Stockholm in Sweden, on the 29th of January, 1688. Descended from a family of credit and respectability among the miners of Stora Kopparberg (the great copper mountain), he was the third child and second son of Dr. Jesper Swedberg, Bishop of Skara in West Gothland, and of Sarah Behm, daughter of Albrecht Behm, Assessor of the Royal Board of mines. His father, a man of talent and influence, and a voluminous author on many subjects both sacred and secular, held successively the appointments of Court Chaplain, Professor of Theology, and Provost of the Cathedral at Upsal, before he was made a bishop. The character of this prelate stood high in Sweden ; his voice was heard on great occasions, whether to reassure the people under the calamity of battle or pestilence, or to rebuke the vicious manners of the upper classes, or the faults of the king himself ; he labored with constant and vigorous patriotism to rouse the public spirit of the country for useful and Christian objects.* Swedenborg’s parentage and home were, therefore, happy omens of his future life ; he was brought up with strict but kindly care; was carefully educated by his father in all innocence and scientific learning ; and enjoyed the opportunities afforded by the sphere and example of family virtues, accomplishments, and high station, with which he was surrounded.

The only record we have of his childhood is in a letter which he wrote late in life to Dr. Beyer. “ With regard to what passed in the earliest part of my life, about which you wish to be informed : from my fourth to my tenth year, my thoughts were constantly engrossed by reflecting i on God, on salvation, and on the spiritual affections of

* For further particulars respecting this prelate, see our Biography of Jesper Swedberg in the Penny Cyclopcedia.

A.D. 1688—1700.] BIRTH, PARENTAGE, ETC. 5

man. I often revealed things in my discourse which filled my parents with astonishment, and made them declare at times, that certainly the angels spoke through my mouth.

“ From my sixth to my twelfth year, it was my greatest delight to converse with the clergy concerning faith; to whom I often observed, that charity or love is the life of faith, and that this vivifying charity or love is no other than the love of one’s neighbor; that God vouchsafes this faith to every one ; but that it is adopted by those only who practise that charity.

“ I knew of no other faith or belief at that time, than that God is the creator and preserver of nature ; that he endues man with understanding, good inclinations, and other gifts derived from these.

“ I knew nothing at that time of the systematic or dogmatic kind of faith, that God the Father imputes the righteousness or merits of his Son to whomsoever, and at whatever times, he wills, even to the impenitent. And had I heard of such a faith, it would have been then, as now, perfectly unintelligible to me.”

This information from Swedenborg himself shews at how early a period he was penetrated with that theological reform which is all in all in his latest writings ; and when to this it is added, that his sayings at the time were so extraordinary that his parents used to declare that “the angels spoke through his mouth,” we see how deeply were the preparations laid for that spiritual and mental condition which his mature years were to present. Love as superior to faith, and spiritual intercourse as a way of information on spiritual things, were both shadowed forth in his very childhood ; were both carried through science in his adult life, furnishing the torch of so many intellectual discoveries ; and at length were completed in an unparalleled dogmatic

LIFE OF SWEDENBORG.

system of theology on the one hand, in a bodily* introduction to the spiritual world on the other. It may be answered that these confessions only prove the enthusiastic character of our author ; but let us not beg the question which Swedenborg’s life states.

In the sequel we shall have to point out some psychological peculiarities that occurred at “his morning and evening prayers” during his tender years, but at present we only note how free his father had left his mind of Lutheran dogmas, and how much his future course was indebted to this early respect which the Bishop paid to his son’s independence. Reared as he was under a strict ecclesiastic, it is surprising that up to his twelfth year he knew nothing of “ the plan of salvation,” whether it argues his own inability to learn it, or his father’s disbelief in it, or the omission of the latter, from whatever motives, to teach it to his son. Dr. Swedberg, however, was a serious and earnest man, and under date of April, 1729, he thus writes of the subject of our memoir ; — “Emanuel, my son’s name, signifies ‘ God with us,’ — a name which should constantly remind him of the nearness of God, and of that interior, holy, and mysterious connection, in which, through faith, we stand with our good and gracious God. And blessed be the Lord’s name ! God has to this hour indeed been with him ; and may God he farther with him, until he is eternally united with Him in his kingdom.”

Great care was bestowed by the Bishop on Swedenborg’s education, which he received principally at the University of Upsal. “A son of Bishop Swedberg,” says Sandel, “ could not fail to receive a good education . . . such as was suited to form his youth to virtue, industry and solid knowledge, particularly in those sciences that were to con- * By body we do not mean the material but the spiritual body ; for all spiritual things are bodily, though not material.

ACADEMICAL CAREER.

stitute his chief pursuit.”* During his residence at Upsal Swedenborg was assiduous in studying the learned languages, mathematics, mineralogy, and natural philosophy.

In 1709, at the age of 22, he took his degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and his first publication was an edition of select Sentences of Seneca and Publius Syrus Mimus, with comments of his own, which he had written for the degree.f First the author gives parallel aphorisms and passages from other writers, and then remarks of his own. In the latter we have often to admire his precocious judgment in treating of subjects which commonly belong to more adult consideration. The moral tone of the commentary is particularly vigorous, and when he speaks of friendship, filial love, and the like, there is a genius in his words proceeding from the fountains of the heart. The work was dedicated to his father, in a prelude full of gratitude and respectful love.

At the same date he published, in a work of his father’s, a Latin version^ of the Twelfth Chapter of Ecclesiastes, which shewed great command of the Latin language and poetical expression of a high order.

Having completed his university education, in 1710, according to the practice of the time, he commenced a course of travel, and first he came to London. In his brief diary of the voyage, he relates with much simplicity the adventures which befel him. After a severe storm, in which there was danger of foundering, the ship was mistaken for a Danish pirate by an armed English vessel, and

* An Account of Emanuel Swedenborg, as contained in a Eulogium to his Memory, by M. Sandel.

t Inserted in Tafel’s Magazin, Band. III., 1844.

s

LIFE OF SWEDENBORG.

fired into, but without damage ; and secondly, when he entered the port of London, some of his own countrymen came on board, and persuaded him to land at once, in ignorance of the quarantine regulations. The plague at the time was raging in his own country ; and Swedenborg records that it was with difficulty that he escaped hanging for his imprudence.

He spent a twelvemonth at London and Oxford, from whence be passed to the continent, and lived for more than three years in France, Holland, and other countries. In 1/15, he published at Greifswalde an Oration on the return of Charles XII. from Turkey, and a small volume of Latin prose fables,* professedly after the manner of Ovid, but shadowing forth the virtues and exploits of certain modern Scandinavians; as he says, “kings and great people.” In this work there is evidence of an acute faculty of observation, of considerable power of fancy and humour, and especially of a regard to the forms of mythological lore. In the latter respect it suggests the Worship and Love of God, a work of thirty years later date, which we shall have to notice presently. At this time Swedenborg wrote to his brother-in-law, that he was “ alternating mathematics with poetry in his studies,” an instance of his early flexibility, and which sheds light upon his future deeds.

From Greifswalde he returned home in 1715, through Stralsuud, just as Charles XII. was about to be besieged in that city, and it was probably shortly after this that he put forth at Skara a little volume of poemsf written for the most part on his travels. These poems display fancy, but

* Camena Borea, cum heroum et heroidumfactis ludens, sive Fabell.® Ovidianis similes, H(C. Ab Emanuel Swedberg [Swedenborg]. Edidit Dr. J. F. E. Tafel.

t Ludus Heliconius, sive Carmina Miscellanea, quae variis in locis cecinit Emanuel Swedberg [Swedenborg]. Receusuit Dr. J. F. E. Tafel.

A.D. 1710-15.] first TRAVELS; FABLES AND POEMS. !)

a controlled imagination. If we may convey to the English reader such a notion of Latin verses, they remind one of the Pope school, in which there is generally some theme or moral governing the flights of the muse. Under various forms, they hymn the praises of patriotism, love, friendship, and filial regard, and they love mythological clothing. It is noteworthy that we find so methodical a philosopher as Swedenborg making courteous passes with the Muse, as though to acknowledge the truth and import of immortal song. Still his effusions were hardly more than a polite recognition of poetry, that sweeter and weaker sex of truth ; for to call Swedenborg himself a great poet, as Count Hopken has done, is blind and undiscriminating. He did indeed weave great poetry at last, but it was by the order and machinery of a stupendous intelligence, and poetry so produced is not proper poetry but reason, — is not female but masculine truth.

One of his poems has been spiritedly paraphrased in our own day by Francis Barham, who considers it by far the finest in the collection, and to give the reader some idea of the above volume, as well as to adorn our own pages, we insert his version. “Swedenborg,” he premises, “was at this time twenty-two years of age. Charles XII., the glorious monarch of Sweden, after having reduced the Danes to obedience, had attacked the Russians ; and, after the disastrous battle of Pultowa, was enclosed in Bender, the sport of Turkish intrigues. At this crisis of his fate, the King of Denmark determined to avenge his past disgraces on the Swedes. He made a descent on Schonen, and took the town of Helsingburg. The Swedes, however, remained firm, and the disasters of their king rather inflamed their loyalty and patriotism than dispirited them. An army, under Steinbock, partly consisting of undisciplined peasants, gave the Danes a bloody defeat, and forced the survivors to quit the country with precipitation.

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LIFE OF SWEDENBORG.

“ Such was the occasion of Swedenborg’s triumphal Ode to Steinbock on the Defeat of the Danes.”

The following is Barham’s paraphrase : —

“ Lulled be the dissonance of war — the crash Of blood-stained arms — and let us listen now To sweetest songs of jubilee. From harp And thrilling lyre, let melodies of joy Ring to the stars, and every sphere of space Glow with the inspiring soul of harmony.

Phoebus applauds, and all the Muses swell Our glory on their far-resounding chords.

Well may the youthful poet be abashed.

Who sings such mighty enterprise, — his theme So great, so insignificant his strain ! —

Let Europe boast of Sweden — in the North,

South, East, and West, victorious. — Round the Pole The seven Triones dance exultingly.

Never to let the hyperborean bear

Sink in the all-o’erwhelming ocean stream ;

For when in the wave he bathes his giant limbs,

’Tis but to rise more proudly. Even now The fertile Scandia wreaths her brow with flowers.

And Victory’s trophies glitter over Sweden.

The God of battles smiles upon our race.

And the fierce Dane sues for our mercy ; — Yea,

The troops Insidious Cimbria sent against us.

Lie scattered by a warrior young in arms.

Though Swedish Charles, our hero King’s afar In Russian battles — his bright valour fills The heart of Steinbock — the victorious one ; —

These names of Charles and Steinbock like a spell Created armaments, and hurled pale fear Among our foes. — Steinboek ! thy red right hand Hath smitten down the spoiler ; and in thee.

Another Charles we honor, — and rejoice To hail thee, hero of thy grateful country.

Bind the triumphal laurel round thy brow.

Such chaplet well becomes the invincible ;

Ascend tby chariot — we will fling the palms

MARTIAL ODE TO STEINBOCK.

Before thee, while the peal of martial music Echoes thy high celebrity around.

Hadst thou in olden times of fable lived,

I had invoked thee as a demigod.

Behold, how glitteringly in northern heaven Thy star exults : the name of Magnus fits Both it and thee, inseparably linked :

In thee, the genius of the North expands.

And all the virtue of thy ancestry Illustrates thee. Chief of our gallant chiefs —

Too gallant for a song so weak as mine —

Oh ! could their names enshrined in monuments Appear, how would the eyes of Sweden kindle To read them. Coronets of gold for thee.

Were all too little recompense ; — hereafter,

A crown of stars is aU thine own. The foe Lies broken by thy force and heroism :

Numerous as Denmark’s sands they came — how few Returned — their princes and their soldiery Repulsed with scorn, while shuddering horror hung Upon their flight — Jove’s thunderstorms assailed Their bands of treachery, daylight was eclipsed In thickest clouds, and the pure cause of God And patriotism triumphed. Ay, the cause Of Sweden’s royalty, which Denmark strove —

How vainly — to despoil. Our king perceived Their rising hatred ; poets were forbid To sing his praise — his praise beyond compare ;

For this, in sooth, the land was steeped in blood ; Even for this, the fire and sword laid waste Our native soU. Then let each warrior hind The laurel chaplet, and the bard exult O’er slaughtered rebels. For the destiny Of Charles shall yet awake the Muse’s hymns.

Ah, soon return, — Oh, monarch of our love !

Oh ! Sun of Sweden, waste not all thy light To illume the crescent of the Ottomans :

Thy absence we bewail, wandering in glooms Of midnight sorrow — save that these bright stars That lead us on to victory, still console Thy people’s hearts, and bid them not despair.”

LIFE OF SWEDENBORG.

Our author was now on the threshold of active life, and his Right Reverend father gave him full liberty to choose the direction of his future career. The old gentleman has left in the Library at Skara, an autobiography of 1000 pages, in which, as we have seen, he mentions his son Emanuel with praise and pride. This book must be a curiosity, and we hope will one day be published, to illustrate the history and manners of the time and the writer. In the course of other matter the Bishop says ; — “ I have kept my sons to that profession to which God has given them inclination and liking : I have not brought up one to the clerical office, although many parents do this inconsiderately, and in a manner not justifiable, by which the Christian church and the clerical order suffer not a little, and are brought into contempt.”

Swedenborg started in life with powerful family connexions : one of his sisters married Eric Benzelius, a man of great talents and influence, and subsequently Archbishop of Upsal ; another was united to Lars Benzelstierna, governor of a province, and whose son became a bishop. Other members of his family also enjoyed ecclesiastical and civil dignities. There can be no doubt that he had abundant patronage with the court, in addition to the great talents and moral integrity which were his personal commendation. The profession to which he brought these advantages, was such as was concerned about mining, smelting, and various mechanical and engineering works. His letters from abroad to Eric Benzelius at Upsal, brought him into connexion with the active and youthful minds in that University, detailing, as they did, whatever inventions, discoveries, and good books he met with on his travels, as well as new ideas and suggestions of his own. No sooner had he returned to Sweden in 1715, than we find him entering upon the active prosecution of his calling.

“ Swedenborg,” says Collin, “ is silent on the merits

[a.d. 1715-16.] MINING AND MECHANICS.

of his youth, which were great. The author of a dissertation on the Royal Society of Sciences at-Upsal, published in 1789, mentions him as one of its first and best members, thus: — ‘His letters to the Society while abroad, witness that few can travel so usefully. An indefatigable curiosity, directed to various important objects, is conspicuous in all. Mathematics, astronomy, and mechanics, seem to have been his favorite sciences, and he had already made great progress in these. Every where he became acquainted with the most renowned mathematicians and astronomers, as Flamstead, Delahire, Varignon, &c. This pursuit of knowledge was also united with a constant zeal to benefit his country. No sooner was he informed of some useful discovery, than he was solicitous to render it beneficial to Sweden, by sending home models. When a good book was published, he not only gave immediate notice of it, but contrived to procure it for the library of the University.”

From 1716 to 1718 he edited a periodical work, entitled Dcedalus Hyperboreus* a record of the new flights of mechanical and mathematical genius in Sweden. This work reached six numbers. In the preface to it, the editor shewed how little he valued the “ impossibihties” of the day : he had already begun to think of flpng-machines, and to speak of them as among the desiderata of the age ; for he was imbued with the very spirit of our own railroad and electric era, and had a very limited belief in final impossibilities. Among the contributors to this work was Christopher Polheim, called the Swedish Archimedes, whose connexion with Swedenborg was of great importance to the latter. Besides this, the Daedalus is said to contain the lucubrations and papers of a scientific society that was founded by Eric Benzelius among the professors at Upsal.

In the course of 1716, Swedenborg was invited by Pol-

* The Dcedalus has not been translated into English.

LIFE OF SWEDENBORG.

heim to repair with him to Lund, to meet Charles XII., who had just escaped from Stralsund, when he enjoyed much intercourse with the king, who was pleased to praise the D«- dalus, and to take Swedenborg under his royal patronage. It was his Majesty’s wish that in time he should succeed Polheim, the Counsellor of Commerce. He had the choice of three offices, and Charles had the warrant for the rank and duties of extraordinary Assessor of the Board of jMines made out for him. (The Board of Mines, it is to be observed, was a constitutional department of the Government, having inspection over the mines and metallic works, so important to the prosperity of Sweden, whose foreign commerce is still greatly dependent upon its mineral wealth.) On this occasion intrigue was busy against him, but the clear-sighted Charles saw the merits of Swedenborg, and confirmed him in his place, obliging the other candidate, at the king’s own table, to write out the warrant himself. The king also wrote a letter to the College of Mines, “ ordering that Swedenborg should have a seat and voice in the College, whenever he could be present, and especially whenever any business of a mechanical nature was to be considered.” It was also expressly stated in the same document, “ that Swedenborg was appointed to cooperate with Polheim, and assist him in his affairs, and in the working of his inventions.” The works of which he was thus immediately summoned to the joint superintendence, were the formation of the basin of Carlscrona, and of locks between Lake Wener and Gottenburg, among the rapids and cataracts of Trolhatta. Upon these undertakings he was engaged from time to time until the death of his royal master.

At this period there occurred an interesting passage in his life. He sojourned in Polheim’s house, at once as his coadjutor, and as his pupil in mathematics, and fell in love with his second daughter, Emerentia Polheim. “ Polheim’s

[a. D. 1716-18.] royal patronage, and first love. 15

eldest daughter,” says he in one of his letters, “ is promised to a page of the king’s named Marmenbrdm. I wonder what people say of this in relation to myself. His second daughter is, in my opinion, much the handsomest.” The lady was only in her fourteenth year, and not being willing to accept Swedenborg’s overtures, she did not suffer herself to be betrothed. Her father however had a great affection for him, and gave him the lady in a written agreement, hoping that in future years his daughter would be more favorably disposed. This bond his daughter, from filial obedience, signed. Great was her depression of mind after thus binding herself to one to whom she felt no attachment ; and her brother, in compassion, abstracted the document secretly from Swedenborg, who used to read it over day after day, and soon missed it. When Swedenborg found what anguish he had caused to the object of his affections, he freely relinquished all claims to her hand, and took his departure from her father’s house ; and this is the only love affair which his biographers have to record. For the life of prodigious concentration that he was thenceforth to lead, it seemed almost necessary that the ordinary impediments to solitary and public energy should be put aside ; ^ and this early disappointment probably had its share in preventing him from contracting domestic ties. So at least the best authorities presume. We shall once again recur to this topic later on.