we should. Yet give me leave to add, that these Sacred Writings are capable of speaking to the heart and understanding of man, by more ways than have been thought of or put in practice: and he who can discover new treasures in these sacred mines, and produce from them such rich jewels as were never yet seen by the eye of man, will undoubtedly challenge our strictest attention, and deserve encouragement in his pious labors. This then may be said of our author. He hath struck out a new path through this deep abyss, which no man ever trod before. He has left all the commentators and expositors to stand on their own footing; he neither meddles nor interferes with any of them; his thoughts are all his own; and the ingenious and sublime turn he has given to every thing in the Scripture, he has copied from no man; and therefore, even in this respect, he hath some title to the regard of the ingenious and learned world.

It is true, when a reader comes to peruse his work, if he expects to understand him with a slight and cursory reading, he will find himself greatly mistaken; his thoughts are too sublime and lofty to be surveyed with a weak or a wanton eye; his language is quite different from the common modes of speech; and his sense is sometimes so deep and profound, as not to be readily apprehended by a common understanding. Whoever, therefore, takes this book in hand, and finds passages in it not easy intelligible, let him not throw it by as a thing of no value, nor content himself with a bare perusal; but let him read it over and over again; let him study the drift and design of the author; and I will answer for it, that the more and oftener he reads it, the more instruction and delight he will receive from it. The author has a depth, which if once farthomed (and it is not unfathomable) will yield the noblest repast to a pious mind. But if any one imagines that I say this to puff a book, in the sale of which my interest is so nearly concerned, any gentleman is welcome to peruse it at my shop, and to purchase it or not, as his own judgment shall direct him.

Nothing recommends a book more effectually to the public than the eminence and credit of its author; nothing

is more notorious, than that a weak performance, if it appears under a great name, shall be better received in the world than the most sublime and ingenious productions of an obscure person; so that it is not merit but prejudice that generally governs the judgment of men.

Though the author of Arcana Calestia is undoubtedly a very learned and great man, and his works highly esteemed by the literati, yet he is no less distinguished for his modesty than his great talents, so that he will not suffer his name to be made public. But though I am positively forbid to discover that, yet I hope he will excuse me if I venture to mention his benign and generous qualities. How he bestowed his time and labors in former years, I am not certainly informed; (though I have heard by those who have been long acquainted with him, that they were employed in the same manner as I am going to relate:) but what I have been an eye-witness to, I can declare with certain truth; and therefore I do aver, that this gentleman, with indefatigable pains and labor, spent one whole year in studying and writing the first volume of Arcana Cœlestia, was at the expense of two hundred pounds to print it, and also advanced two hundred pounds more for the printing of this second volume; and when he had done this, he gave express orders that all the money that should arise in the sale of this large work should be given towards the charge of the propagation of the Gospel. He is so far from desiring to make a gain of his labors, that he will not receive one farthing back of the four hundred pounds he hath expended; and for that reason his works will come exceeding cheap to the public.

I further declare I have not the least reason in the world to believe him a bigot to any mode or method of religion; I know not what community he belongs to, or whether he belongs to any; if any one can guess by his writings, he knows where to find them. But it matters not what or who the person is that writes, if his writings are founded on truth, and agreeable to such learned men as are competent judges of them. The deepest and most learned, as well as most valuable pieces, are sometimes misunderstood and rejected many years, even by learned

men themselves; to instance only three performances out of the many that might be produced, viz. Locke on Human Understanding, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Prideaux's Connexion of the Old and New Testament. Those who have been conversant with books, especially in the trading way, cannot be ignorant of the difficulties which these valuable pieces have met with in making their way into the world and it is as remarkable now to observe, how they have been called for and admired for many years past.

-'I

How this great work of ARCANA COLESTIA will succeed in the world, is impossible at present to determine. If all men of learning were of the same mind with the ingenious and pious Mr. Penny, of Dartmouth, we need not fear of success; for in his letter to me, on the publication of the first volume, are these following words :have long ardently wished to see the historical part of the Old Testament, which seems only to regard the Jewish Dispensation, (and upon that account too lightly regarded by the major part of the Christian world,) proved to be as delightful, instructive, and as necessary for the knowledge of Christians as the New. This ARCANA CŒLESTIA gives me the fullest satisfaction of, &c.' A copy of this letter was printed at large in the Daily Advertiser of Christmas-day, 1749. Now this delightful, instructive, and necessary knowledge, cannot be expected from this part of Holy Writ, unless the historical part of the Old Testament be allegorized in some such manner as our Latin author has here done it. And the great and learned as well as the inspired St. Paul, clearly gives encouragement to this way of writing, Gal. iv. 24. And our author neither rejects nor disturbs the literal sense by his allegorical exposition.

Soon after the publication of Mr. Penny's Letter before mentioned, a grave, judicious and learned gentleman was pleased to call at one of the booksellers where this famous Latin book was appointed to be sold: and when he had cast his eye over part of the work, he inquired who the author was; but being told that the author would not be known,—'Well, (said the gentleman) I confess that at these years I am not fond of new acquaintance,

but should be extremely glad to have some conversation with him; for (continued he, with great earnestness) I never saw, nor heard, nor read, of so surprising a man in all my days!'

Any one of small judgment may guess at the cheapness of the work, when he finds that six hundred and forty quarto pages in Latin, of the first volume, are sold for no more than six shillings, unbound. But this second volume, which is now publishing in Latin and English, will be unaccountably cheap, as any one may conclude, even from the postage of the Latin copy from abroad: for the bare postage of this first number cost no less than twelve shillings, and now it is printed, doth make fifty-two quarto pages in the English tongue; and all to be sold for no more than eight-pence, which is not half the price that such a quantity of paper and print is generally sold for. The postage of the second number came to eighteen shillings; and that of the third amounted to one pound two shillings; and yet these two numbers are to be sold for no more than nine-pence each; so that from hence it is easy to imagine how cheap the whole will be, especially when printed in such a grand and pompous manner at so low a price. But it is the generous author's absolute command that it should be so, who, it is plain, wants neither purse nor spirit to carry on his laudable undertaking.

As the copy comes from a foreign country, and as one number may contain nearly double the quantity of another, it is utterly impossible to fix a certain regular time for the publication of each. But this the public may be assured of, that when a fresh number is published, it shall be advertised in the newspapers. Those who are pleased to give their orders to the news-carriers, will have every number as certainly as though they were apprised of the certain time of its coming out. And the

price will be printed on the title of each English number, (and every Latin number will be of the same price with the English,) so that the readers may be sure that they will not be imposed upon : for sometimes the bulk of the book will plainly appear to be worth five times as much as will be required for it.

Those who are so happy as to be well acquainted with the Latin tongue, will be highly delighted with the author's elegant and sublime language.

NO. IX.

The following statement is taken from the Intellectual Repository, for July, 1823. It is a reply to an article which appeared first in the English papers, and afterwards in many papers in this country, particularly in Boston. The refutation which follows, however, was not copied into the Boston newspapers; and as it may be interesting to some people, it is here inserted.

UNFOUNDED TALE RESPECTING THE SKULL OF SWEDEN

BORG, AND ITS REFUTATION.

Many of our readers must have seen a fabrication on this subject, which has passed through most of the papers, and which gives a striking illustration of the manner in which the ridiculous stories that have at various times been put in circulation respecting this distinguished character, may have had their origin. A few facts, in themselves no way discreditable to the subject of them, and partially or imperfectly stated by their first relater, come into the possession of some caterer for the press, by whom they are put into a form quite different from their real one, to gratify the love of ridicule and of scandal so prevalent among mankind. The substance of the ridiculous tale to which we now refer, and which first appeared in the Times newspaper of March 31, is as follows. Sometime after the interment of E. S. 'one of his disciples,' it is alleged, came over to England, and by bribing the sexton of the Swedish chapel near Ratcliffe Highway, obtained possession of the head of the departed saint,' with which he decamped to his own country, where he preserved it as a precious 'relic,' to the day of his death: - when it coming into the possession of his relatives, with some papers explaining to whom it had belonged, they, 'alarmed at the consequences which might follow such an unhallowed violation of the tomb,' transmitted it to this