The Georgetown news., 1856-03-06
Swedenborg and svvedenborgIans.

When fresh denomination differs so ma
! terially from the old doctrines and usages
as the New Church" does, and is so rapid
| ly indOctrinating the public mind, hundreds
are asking who and what they are? Some
weeks since, in Boston, they held the lar
gest convention they ever had in the world.
| Delegates came from half the States, some
of them more than a thousand miles, and
the audience numbered thousand persons.
/ They had belonged to different Sects, were
/ even of different nations, and were eminent
ly intellectual and moral, perhaps as much
so as any religious body ever assembled
what went they out for to see?" Was it
less than reed shaken with the wind?-
Was it to know of the idle dreams and the
wild imaginings of an insane man-an i'm
postor-a visionary, or a mystic? 1t is
certainly worth while for the world to
know; and though we intend to pronounce
no opinion, perhaps our suggestions may
lead to inquiry.
Swedenborg is either to be a great bless
ing to the race, beyond what any other hu-
man being has been. or is to prove a terri
BILE curse by leading the amiable, the wise
and the virtuous into error. He was born
at Stockholm, in 1858; the son of a Luther
an bishop, named Swedberg; and passed by
the name of his father till more than thirty
years old, when he was raised to the rank
of the nobility. All that could be done to
improve great natural abilities was done
for him, first by his father, and afterwards
in the best schools of his native country,
and the universities of England, France,
Holland and Germany, as also by extensive
travels in other lands, and an acquaintance
with the best and most cultivated minds of
Europe. AT an earl Y day he gave evidence
Of greatness, and held high rank among the
learned in theology, mathematics, philoso-
ply and natural science-attracting the
attention of the nobility and royal family,
who cOurted his society, and rewarded him
with honors, Office and titles Viewed sim
ply at this point, we think that his pub
lished works would Justify the assertion
that Emanuel SWedenborg has had few SUI
periors anloug mortal men. His literary
and scientific works made sixty octave vol
umes, and they are today the evidences of
: the statement we have made. Socrates and
Plato, of ancient times-Newton, Bacon,
Laplace, and Cuyier, of a later day-were
remarkable for their discoveries, experience
and wisdom; but we have never heard of
any thing they knew or were capable ofap-
preciating, more than he; and in some re-
Spects he was in advance Of them all.
He was equally remarkable in his per-
) sonal habits and moral organization Men
have said that be was wild and crazy; none
ever said that he was evil or corrupt. Nev-
r er man took the name of Christian that was
more holy or more pure. His memory is
untainted by even suspicion. He went
among the world, yet he was not of the
world. The high and the low were within
the scope Of his associations; yet neither
the refined nor vulgar sensualities were nm
on him, With all his stupendous attain
ment III physiology, anatomy, chemistry,
mathematics, mechanics, finance, and phi
lOsOphy, he yet had the humility and sim
plicity ofa child. He never thought to be
a leader. He never formed party in gov
ernment; never school in philosophy; nev-
er church or sect in religion Some of
his greatest works he published at his own
expense; and in that way he consumed all his
income-without even attaching his name
to them. He sent them to the libraries
the universities and the learned, that they
might undergo a thorough test, and quietly
waited that the bread he had cast upon the
waters might be gathered in the time or
dained by Providence, and to that superin-
tending care he intrusted all, as thoug gh hu-
man strength was nothing.
Thus stood Swedenborg, honored by all
the world, to his forty-sixth year, when he
commenced a new--a religious life, for
which now he is especially known-when
he declared himself commissioned of God
TO reveal the spiritual sense of the Scrip