Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/173

XIII ] high position of Councilor of Mines when one of the two councilorships fell vacant in the spring of 1747.

Thirty years before, the Board of Mines had been very reluctant to accept the young engineer as one of their members; now he had arrived at the top. Above the two Councilors, there was only the President of the Board, and he had to be of hereditary nobility.

But Swedenborg wrote briefly to the King that, although he had been proposed for this office, he begged His Majesty not to appoint him. In fact, he applied for permission to be released from public office altogether, and this without the customary promotion in rank. All he asked for, on the ground of his often having spent his own money in mining researches abroad, was that he might be pensioned on half salary, because he had to go abroad again to finish some important work on which he was engaged.

The King of Sweden, with gracious words for the services Swedenborg had rendered the State and with earnest wishes that he might continue to do so, did nevertheless grant the suppliant's wishes.

In the minutes of the Board of Mines, it was duly recorded that Assessor Swedenborg had been released from his duties, and "all the members of the Royal College regretted losing so worthy a colleague." He was asked to remain until all his cases were finished, which he did.

On July 17, 1747, he took leave of his colleagues amidst thanks and good wishes; "they wished him a prosperous journey and a happy return, after which he left." 3

It is now two hundred years since Emanuel Swedenborg, at the age of fifty-nine, cut loose from his established existence as an important servant of the State and fully committed himself to strange voyages. As far as his world knew, he was only going to Amsterdam and London for his usual work with libraries and printing presses, but the question also has to be asked—Where was he going as to his mind?

In brutal brevity: Was Swedenborg insane?

As mentioned before, his own definition of insanity "from the medical point of view" was "acting contrary to accepted customs