In appearance tall, with a pleasing face and regular features, he possessed singularly fine blue eyes, which retained their beauty even in his old age. John Christian Cuno, a merchant and banker in Amsterdam, who was a friend of his, said of him: 'When he gazed upon me with his smiling blue eyes, which he always did in conversing with me, it was as if truth itself was speaking from them. These eyes had a sort of magnetic power, and the same friend observed that he often noticed with surprise how scoffers, who had come to make fun of the old gentleman,' were fain to listen in silent wonder at the singular things which he, like an open-hearted child, told about the spiritual world, without reserve and with full confidence. It almost seemed as if his eyes possessed the faculty of imposing silence on everyone.'

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His dress was simple, but neat. According to the prevailing custom he wore a wig, but this was not of immoderate length. One Swedish contemporary describes him as usually wearing a long, light blue or greyish velvet coat, with a black taffeta waistcoat, and shoes with large gold buckles. His London landlord, a barber appropriately named Shearsmith, of Bath Street, Coldbath Fields, in whose unpretentious house he died, stated that

the dress he generally wore when he went out to visit was a suit of black velvet, made after an old fashion; a pair of long ruffles; a curious hilted sword; and a gold-headed cane. He ate little or no animal food, only a few eels sometimes. His chief sustenance was cakes, tea and coffee, made generally very sweet. His drink was water.1 He took a great deal of snuff.

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Everybody who has left any record of him speaks of his easy, polished, and agreeable manners in society. Thus Cuno observes: Mr. Swedenborg moves in the world with great tact, and knows how to address the high and the low. This is not surprising when we consider the circles he moved in. In a letter to the Rev. Thomas

1 In company he would drink two or three glasses of wine, but

never more.

Hartley, rector of Winwick, Northamptonshire, who asked him for particulars of his life, career, friends and relations, Swedenborg, after giving a brief and very modest outline of his curriculum vitae, states:

With respect to my family connection, I had four sisters. One of them was married to Ericus Benzelius, who subsequently became Archbishop of Upsala, and through him I became related to the two succeeding archbishops, who.. were younger brothers of his. My second sister was married to Lars Benzelstierna, who became a provincial governor ; but these two are dead. Two bishops however who are related to me are living, one of them, who is Flennius, and who is Bishop of East Gothland, officiates now as President in the House of the Clergy in the Diet at Stockholm, in the place of the Archbishop who is an invalid; he married my sister's daughter; the other named Benzelstierna, is Bishop of Westmanland and Dalecorlia; he is the son of my second sister. Not to mention others of my relations who occupy stations of honour. Moreover all the bishops of my native country, who are ten in number, and also the sixteen senators, and the rest of those high in office, entertain feelings of affection for me, and I live with them on terms of familiarity, as a friend among friends; the reason of which is, that they know I am in company with angels. Even the King and the Queen, and the three princes, their sons, show me great favour. . But all that I have related I consider of comparatively little importance; for it is far exceeded by the circumstance that I have been called to a holy office by the Lord Himself. . .

The letter of Mr. Hartley, a beneficed clergyman of the Church of England, to which the above is a reply, deserves quotation as throwing light on Swedenborg the man. Mr. Hartley writes:

I consider myself most highly favoured and I rejoice from my inmost heart in having had the honour, which you lately granted me, of conversing with you; and also in your having been so kind and friendly towards me who am quite unworthy of such a favour. But your charity towards the neighbour, the heavenly benignity shining from your countenance, and your childlike simplicity, devoid of all vain show and egotism are so great, and the treasure of wisdom possessed by you is so sweetly tempered with gentleness, that it did not inspire

in me a feeling of awe, but one of love, which refreshed me in my inmost heart. Believe me, O best of men, that by my intercourse with you I consider myself crowned with more than royal favours. In speaking with you every suspicion of flattery must be hushed. For what ground for flattery can there be, when I attribute everything in you, however great and extraordinary it may be, to the Lord, and not to yourself, and when I look upon you only as an instrument of His mercy and kindness!

Swedenborg must indeed have been a remarkable figure when a visit to him in his humble lodgings could evoke such a letter, of the sincerity of which there can be no doubt, for Mr. Hartley had nothing to gain by writing it, the object of the letter being to offer Swedenborg an asylum in England in the event of persecution at home.

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Of Swedenborg's uncompromising honesty the following story is a good illustration. He originally intended to publish his True Christian Religion' in Paris, for which purpose the consent of the Press Censor had to be obtained. This consent was given, subject, however, to the proviso that the title-page should bear an imprint to the effect that the book had been printed elsewhere, in London or Amsterdam. But Swedenborg would not permit the True Christian Religion' to appear with a lie on its title-page, and so he took his MS. to Amsterdam and published it there.

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Though transparently honest, he was by no means austere, and had a keen sense of humour. This appears from an incident relating to a young lady of about sixteen who was very anxious that Uncle' Swedenborg should show her an angel. At last he consented, and leading her to a summer-house in his garden he placed her before a curtain that had been lowered, and then said "Now you shall see an angel"; and as he spoke he drew up the curtain, when the maiden beheld herself reflected in a mirror.'

Swedenborg was not averse to the society of ladies, towards whom he always behaved with the distinguished courtesy of his time. He was devoted to children, fond

of music, and seems to have been literally worshipped by his servants—a man and wife, who appear to have been very charming and very original, simple folk.

No better or more fitting conclusion could be given to this necessarily somewhat meagre sketch than by reprinting Swedenborg's Rules of Life,' from an unpublished MS. :

1. Often to read and meditate on the Word of God.

2. To submit everything to the will of Divine Providence. 3. To observe in everything a propriety of behaviour and to keep the conscience clear.

4. To discharge with fidelity the functions of my employments, and to make myself in all things useful to society.

CHAPTER I

LIFE AND CREATION

WE are living in an age of materialism, in an age in which people do not believe in anything that cannot be weighed or measured. The scientific man strives to set up a philosophy of the universe in which God has no place. Nature suffices for itself and needs no spiritual explanation. This endeavour has nevertheless failed of success, and principally for two reasons. No system of materialistic philosophy has yet satisfactorily explained that extraordinary phenomenon called life with the associated mysterious sensation of self-consciousness, and nobody has succeeded in discovering a secular sanction for human conduct based on something stronger than the good intentions of the individual and the good of the community.

Philosophers maintain that ethics are entirely distinct from religion and need no such sanction, but the practical man knows from experience that the selfishness of mankind cannot be restrained by philanthropic theories.

In a large measure, the negation of religion is the result of the illogical and childish beliefs of our ancestors, which have been handed down to us from generation to generation.

Fallible human nature has a tendency to error, and truths handed down through the centuries are apt to become so caked in error or misconception, that the original kernel of truth is completely concealed by the gradually growing husk of falsity. Whilst primitive religion was adapted to the primitive minds of a childlike