SWEDENBORG DOCUMENTS SIGRID CYRIEL ODHNER 1927
NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XLVII JANUARY, 1927 No. 1
AN ACCOUNT OF MY WORK IN SWEDEN, FROM AUGUST, 1925, TO AUGUST, 1926.
(The reader may consult the following articles by Miss Odhner which have appeared in New Church Life in recent years: "What are the New Documents?" (1924, p. 400) and "Where are the Swedenborg Documents?" (1915, p. 81)-EDITOR.)
In summing up the results of my year's work on the Swedenborg Documents, it is necessary to keep in mind the purposes for which I was sent to Sweden. These were: First, to secure the original text of all those documents by and concerning Swedenborg of which the Academy did not Possess a copy, to the number of about 564 items (1907 pages); second, to look up and identify the numerous references to documents of which we possessed no certain knowledge; third, to take care of any new documents that might possibly turn up; and fourth, to secure books in which original texts are published.
It was decided that I submit the material obtained in three typewritten sets, together with needed comments, in the form of monthly reports to the Rev. Alfred Acton, Chairman of the Document Committee, these being my actual, technical record of the work. I shall now go over some of the ground in detail to see what has been accomplished, dwelling a little on the more striking features, and afterwards examining what further steps are needed to fulfill the original purpose.
It is a pleasure to relate that, thanks to the facilities extended to me by the Swedish librarians everywhere, we have secured between three and four thousand pages of manuscript, instead of the nineteen hundred pages of our original rough calculation. And much material bearing upon Swedenborg's life, hitherto unknown or inaccessible to us, has thus been added.
I very much desire to avoid exaggerating the value of the new documents. They are not of a nature materially to alter our ideas of Swedenborg's life, but, to quote an early New Churchman, "What is not of value, when it comes to this wonderful man?" Often the question of where to draw the line is most difficult. Had time allowed, I would have been able to go much farther, and work under much less pressure. As it was, I should have had to return with my errand largely unfulfilled, had it not been for the solution of the photostating process by which 732 pages were added. For it is impossible to hurry in the matter of transcriptions whose value depends so largely upon absolute reliability.
The only approach to systematic search was in the work on the Minutes of the College of Mines, some sixty volumes folio, which were gone through page by page for every reference they might contain to Swedenborg, who was a member of the College for over thirty years, that is, from his twenty-eighth to his fifty-ninth year, thus the greater part of his active life. Dr. R. L. Tafel, fifty years ago, secured from the roll-call a record of Swedenborg's daily attendance, but took no notice of the business transacted, nor Swedenborg's participation in it. In order to make this intelligible; I found it necessary to give, at the beginning of each discussion, some account of the case before the court-most frequently technical mining legislation-and enough introductory matter to give meaning to Swedenborg's statements, and finally the conclusion or decision arrived at. You may judge of the extent of the material by the fact that the typed extracts cover some 720 pages folio. This was my principal afternoon work for six months, and the only systematic investigation of new material. It is hard to say now what interest or definite importance these extracts will have for the public. The surprise, to my own mind, lay in the realization that Swedenborg's primary use in this world was in connection with law and justice. If it is true that man's natural use is what prepares him for his spiritual use, as well as being the means of his regeneration, then we may study in these records a unique and undoubtedly important phase of his development.
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When taken in their chronological order, the records will probably be found to shed light upon obscure passages in Swedenborg's learned letters. More than one, I think, shows up the admirable qualities of his personal character, and enlarges our knowledge of his range of interests.
On several occasions we find Swedenborg on the Minutes as "referent"-(a member of a court of justice whose business it is to lay cases before the court). One of these cases came up first on May 15, 1741, when the fiscal advocate demanded that one of the clerks, Canslisten Duseen, be locked up in prison to prevent him from carrying out certain threats against the life of Assessor Porath. Swedenborg advised that they proceed with caution, as his trouble arose from mental anxiety, and that unless they were careful, his condition might become worse. Swedenborg had been appointed "referent" on the case, which is interesting as showing his human side,-his pity for the poor fellow, a victim of weakmindedness and intoxication, whom the majority were willing to condemn on short notice. It shows, also, I think, his skill as a lawyer. Some of it has an almost humorous effect, as when Swedenborg asks the College to find "whether Duseen's weakmindedness is caused by his intoxication, or his intoxication by his weakness of mind." It is curious to find Swedenborg actually engaged upon a practical pathological problem for which nowadays a psychiatric expert would be called in, and especially in view of the fact that at the very time (1741) he was studying the diseases of the fibre.
On October 9th of the same year, Swedenborg is marked on the roll as "absent on account of removing," thus fixing perhaps the date of his taking up residence in his new house on Hornsgatan, (although the deed to the property is dated 1743)
One of the later entries, April 29, 1747, shows Swedenborg proposing measures for government finance reforms thirteen years earlier than his well-known memorials to the Diet on that subject. It is one of the later occurrences of his name in the discussions of the College, and one of the most interesting. There was read an extract from the Treasury Deputation concerning the difficulties of meeting the financial requirements of the coming year, asking each of the members for suggestions as to how the deficit might be met.
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In his reply, Swedenborg declared that the two chief causes of the financial depression were the extremely unfavorable course of foreign exchange and the ruinous distillation of brandy.
II.
One of the particular commissions with which I was charged was to obtain certain original documents belonging to the Academy of the New Church which had been borrowed by Mr. A. H. Stroh in 1914. I regret to report that, in spite of a diligent search, no trace of these manuscripts was found. However, in Upsala University Library, I was shown a wooden box containing a great many important texts borrowed by Mr. Stroh from various institutions and for safekeeping deposited there by Mrs. Stroh after his death. I arranged the various collections of papers in bundles; practically every document was identified; and such as were necessary to complete our collections were transcribed. A great many numbers were the property of the Swedenborg Society of London, and through Dr. Grape, the head of the Manuscript Department of the University, steps were taken to have them returned to their original owners. Here were the "Tafel Transcripts," referred to by the Rev. J. G. Dufty in his article in the NEW-CHURCH MAGAZINE, January, 1924. It was also evident to me that the Rev. James Hyde had arranged into order all the new documents on which he could lay his hands, with the intention of publishing a supplementary volume to the Documents. Among other things, here was one of the important Nordenskiold copies of the Coronis. The only hew document which I came across at Upsala was a letter from Librarian C. G. Giorwell to Dr. J. H. Liden, dated Gothenburg, December 26, 1769, which states that "Swedenborg is here, setting fire to the Swedish Zion," etc.
At the Academy of Sciences it was necessary to transcribe by hand the twenty-one needed documents, as there were no facilities there for the use of a typewriter. A few of Swedenborg's autographs and papers were ordered photostated. To ascertain what was lacking to complete the much discussed Codex 52, which contains some of the theological correspondence, it was necessary to examine and compare two boxes of photographic plates and films at the firm of Lagrelius and Westphal, left there from the time of Mr. Stroh's work, with the final result that I was at last able to assemble the few texts needed to complete our reproductions of this entire Codex.
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In the museum department, I was shown two objects of interest,-Swedenborg's fossil whale, and his fossil tree-trunk. It is said that the Swedish Government owns the finest whale museum in the world. It was necessary to ascend into the garret for a glimpse of "Balaenae Swedenborgii," a huge heap of vertebrae awaiting reconstruction, only partially unpacked since its arrival from Upsala University. In the paleobotanical department is Swedenborg's fossil tree-trunk. The superintendent gave me a copy of the latest work on the subject, in which it is shown that the first classification was incorrect, owing to the mistake of a German scientist in identifying the species of wood.
Some 300 pages of text were secured from the Royal Library of Stockholm, including various photostats. Only one new document containing a reference to Swedenborg's life was found,-a letter from Jesper Swedberg to Jacob Benzelius, dated February 2, 1720,- but a great many bearing on early New Church history, and first translations of the Writings, some apparently contemporary with Swedenborg, and a letter on doctrinal subjects from Dr. Beyer. There was also a new letter by Chr. Johansen, giving Ferelius' testimony concerning Swedenborg's last hours, speaking of his complaining to a friend of "meeting a cruel opposition in all his undertakings."
A great number of references to Swedish and other books yielded some interesting articles, old and new, and led to the securing of a great many additions to our library shelves. The subject of new books and articles written during recent years is too large to take up at this time.
A rather curious contemporary reference to Swedenborgianism was found in a novel written in 1769. It is one of the earliest and most popular, holding about the same position in Swedish literature that Robinson Crusoe holds in English. The title is: "My son upon the Galley, or an East Indian Journey, containing all kinds of inkbottle junk, collected on the ship Finland, which sailed from Gothenburg in December, 1769, and returned to the same port in June, 1771." The opening paragraph of Chapter I reads: "At the time when Swedenborgian spirits were revealing themselves in printed Protocols in Gothenburg; at the time when the dirt is thickest upon the streets of Stockholm, and when Women rattle the loudest in their Kitchens and Pantries; in a word:
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In the golden Sausage-time of the year 1769, I, who now am writing, received an order to present myself upon the Swedish East Indian Company's ship 'Finland,' which then lay ready to sail for Canton under the command of Captain C. G. Ekeberg."
On my list were four items, connected with the history of Swedenborg's manuscripts, required from the archives of the Nordenskiold family, at Helsingfors, Finland. By a fortunate chance, the collections in question have now been brought to Sweden, and I was able to secure their deposit on loan at the Royal Library from Dr. Erik Nordenskiold, the present possessor. I found three of the items needed; but the Swedish translation of the Coronis, examined by Mr. Stroh in 1913, was not among them. Various of these documents were photostated, among them an interesting letter from Dr. Beyer to Nordenskiold concerning the nature of Swedenborg's revelations. In answer to a question on this point, he says: "Concerning Scripture from the Lord and from man, let me say, in general, that no Scripture is immediately Divine, except those books listed in Nova Hierosolyma and De Equo Albo. The writings of the Apostles and Paul are mediately Divine. The old gentleman says in a letter about them [here Dr. Beyer quotes Document No. 224]. . . . This [internal] Sense is the Word Itself, and the Holy in the Word: This has been dictated from Heaven to the Assessor, just as was the Word in the Letter to the Apostles, and, therefore, it produces immediate communication with Heaven. A new Divine Word, it is not, but a Revelation of the Word we have had, which is the crown of all Heavenly Revelations."
In the possession of Dr. Erik Nordenskiold is also the seal of the first society of readers of Swedenborg's Writing; in the world,-the Exegetic Philanthropic Society. Another interesting relic was shown me by Mr. Olof Nordenskiold, who owns a badge said to have been that of the second society, called "Pro Fide et Charitate." The emblem represents two clasped hands.
From the almost inexhaustible source of the State Archives, about 400 Pages of manuscript were copied and 159 pages were photostated, many of them being in Swedenborg's handwriting. Of the former group, 321 pages consisted of the Royal Council's Reports on the Gothenburg controversy. These, as they are the "repudiation and condemnation" of the Heavenly Doctrines by the official representatives of the secular and ecclesiastical powers of the Old Church, would, I should think, bear a somewhat analogous relation to the treatment of our Lord in His Second Coming to what the trial of Christ before the High Priest and Pilate held to His First.
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I examined without practical results a great many ambassadorial papers, finding only among the papers of Baron Nolcken, Swedish Ambassador to England, a brief reference to Swedenborg's death, which he reports to the King as a matter of national importance.
III.
Among the things which lack of time prevented my securing were the numerous early reviews of the Writings in foreign periodicals, a subject which has hitherto commanded very little attention on the part of New Church scholars, but which may be looked upon with great interest at some future time. As these were often very long, I had to be content with getting the first page of a number of them, and the promise of future copies from one of the library assistants, should the Academy desire to order them.
As an illustration of how necessary it is to collect scattered documents, I may note the case of the "Kempe letters." Mr. Stroh had come into the possession of incomplete texts of four letters by Swedenborg, the originals of which were owned by one Consul Kempe of Stockholm, long since deceased. After some effort on the part of Archivist Waern of the State Archives, it was found that the letters had been inherited by the Consul's daughter, Mrs. Hwass, who kindly allowed me to have them photographed for the Academy. Instead of four, there proved to be six!
Another example of the way in which manuscripts change hands was the case of the documents relating to Swedenborg's lawsuit with his aunt, some of which were preserved in the Royal Library. These had been sent back to the archives of Swea Court of Appeals, where an examination brought to light a hitherto unnoticed bundle containing a great many new memorials by Swedenborg, photographs of which were taken, and are now in the possession of the Academy. It is desirable, also, that we secure the hundred or so pages of other memorials and discussion on the same case.
In a former article I referred to Swedenborg's memorials on repairing and arranging certain mechanical models of Christopher Polhem for the museum of the College of Mines.
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There has been a question as to whether any of them are still in existence. I was agreeably surprised, therefore, to read last autumn of an exhibit of material relating to the history of mechanical science in Sweden, where these very models were on view. I learned that a still more complete collection is preserved in the Copper Mining Museum of Fahlun.
During the first week of January I made a brief visit to Dalecarlia, stopping at the mining town of Fahlun, where I was shown through the extensive and most beautifully arranged museum by Dr. Alwar Snov, the energetic director. The records of the Copper Office have only recently been opened for the use of investigators, and a short examination brought to light twenty-six documents more or less directly associated with Swedenborg, many of them being duplicate
reports and discussions of the many commissions carried out by Swedenborg and one or two associates during the years 1725, 1726, 1729, 1730, 1731, 1735, an 1737. One was a draft letter to Swedenborg by Samuel Troilius, dated 1742, thanking him for assisting in the clearing of his bankrupt relative, Peter Swedberg, the bookkeeper.
On my way back to Stockholm I made a detour to Stjernsund, a tiny, forgotten town hidden away in deep pine forests. It was founded by the great inventor, Polhem, for the development of the mechanical arts. Here I was shown the "Polhem house," still standing, where the energetic housewife not only raised two attractive daughters, but also bearded the students, among them young Swedenborg. Entertained by the Baroness de Geer, wife of the present owner of Stjernsund Manor, I inspected the famous relies, "Emerentia's Crutches," around which superstition has woven a strange spell.
During the last week of my stay in Stockholm, F. G. Lindh, Esq., whose work on document collection and publication in NYA KYRKANS TIDNING is deserving of a wider notice, very kindly showed me over one hundred new documents which he has collected, most of them of a legal nature, relating to Swedenborg's property and ancestry. Lack of time prevented more than the malting of a brief list of them, from which I select a few of the more interesting:
1. Mr. Lindh has discovered a new genealogy of Swedenborg, by which it appears that the one given in the Tafel Documents is wrong in deriving his ancestry from Isaac of Fremsbacka instead of Otto of Sundborn.
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2. Documents relating to the house in Stockholm owned by Bishop Swedberg, and in which Swedenborg probably was born. Mr. Lindh has identified this house, and has promised me a photograph of it, though hardly any of the original walls are now standing.
3. The marriage certificate of Jesper Swedberg and Sara Behm.
4. The will of Sara Behm and the division of her estate.
5. By going through all the account books of the College of Mines, Mr. Lindh has found many financial reports in Swedenborg's handwriting, some of them vouchers for his daily expenses when engaged on mining commissions.
6. Copies of letters to Swedenborg from the Alstromers in London, and transactions concerned with the purchase of the first air pump introduced into Sweden from England through Swedenborg's agency, including a bill of lading for the instrument "shipped by the grace of God in good order, London, April 20, 1725."
7. An official deed for Swedenborg's property in South Stockholm.
8. Bankruptcy proceedings of Frederic Gyllenborg, Swedenborg being a creditor for 20,000 dalers, of which he received 10,000 dalers.
9. A new letter by Swedenborg, dated August 2, 1724.
10. Letters on the sale of Swedenborg's estate.
IV.
Towards spring, it became evident that all the new material could not be completed by the end of the year. However, it was thought that more would be gained by continuing along systematic lines than by trying to select the more important documents. The libraries south of Stockholm were visited on my way to Gothenburg, and all obtainable items secured in Linkoping, Skara, Jonkoping and Gothenburg. One hundred and forty-four pages of photostats were arranged for at Linkoping, comprising the Benzelius correspondence, and some fifty pages at Gothenburg, being material on the Beyer-Rosen Controversy.
Before turning to the summing up of what remains to be done, I wish I could put into words my feeling of gratitude to Professor Acton for all the assistance he has given me during the past year, not only is the hundreds of pages of letters, which kept up a constant stream of encouragement and advice, but for the many pages of criticism and bibliographical comment which were a great aid towards the perfection of the work.
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In spite of the closest co-operation I have no doubt that a certain number of mistakes and duplications have occurred. But of invaluable assistance in this respect was the "List Of Depositories" which Mr. Acton sent me early in the fall, in which he grouped, under each of the archives, all the documents belonging together, with cross references to duplicates, a work for which Dr. Martin Lamm, at Present one of the foremost authorities on Swedenborg's life, expressed the greatest admiration when he saw it.
To those not actually in touch with the undertaking, it would be impossible to explain how many complications and confusions encumber the work on the Swedenborg Documents. Thus the bibliographical phase,-the hardest, but least inspiring,-actually took up most of my time, involving the identification of texts and checking up of unlimited references. Although the work is not completed, owing to the abundance of material found, yet practically all of the texts on our original List have been obtained, and a great advance has been made. Another six months in Sweden would probably have enabled us to complete the task.
It is hard for me to believe otherwise than that the will of Providence is intimately present in everything connected with so important an undertaking as the collection and preservation of all the testimony concerning Swedenborg-even with the delays and postponements incident to its carrying out. It may be that time and peculiar circumstances are required to bring to fruition the definite purpose of a work with which the entire New Church is concerned, namely, the publication of the collections. But I may be excused for voicing here the profound conviction that grows upon me that, when taken in chronological order, this mass of documentary material will have a powerful effect upon the study and understanding of Swedenborg's development.
If a plan of co-operation could be devised for the publication of the original texts in both English and Swedish editions, a unique opportunity would present itself of gaining two distinct ends by a process of arrangement:
1. A chronological arrangement of one edition would be of inestimable value to the biographical study.
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2. An arrangement into topical groups, like those of Tafel's Documents, for the other edition, would divide the material logically and usefully under subject headings.
But at this stage of the work it is of chief importance that the work be carried forward, and not allowed to lapse into its former quiescence while so much remains to be done before all the texts are collected.
I take this opportunity to express my love and gratitude to the Academy for allowing me to assist in this work.
SIGRID CYRIEL ODHNER.
November 30, 1926.