Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/289

XXI ] He kept the same keen eye on the doings of the Swedish legislature that he had done before he seemed to himself to have crossed the boundaries of the physical world. In his code, attention to civic duties ranked high, and, as Robsahm says, "in acting with a party he was never a party-man, but loved truth and honesty in all he did."

As head of the Swedenborg family he was a member of the House of Nobles, and he had already presented useful memorials to the Diet while he was in the Board of Mines. In 1734 he was very much against declaring war on Russia. "The greatest honor seems to consist in our acquiring a position of respect by wise economy . . ." 6

His next memorial to the Diet was in 1755, while he was in the midst of writing the Arcana Celestial. There was nothing occult about his advice to the legislators. He viewed with alarm that the excess of imports over exports amounted to three to four million of silver daler. He scored the evils of inflation. People were allowed to raise money on their property but it was paper currency with no backing. He wanted such banknotes to be called in and payment in coin to be resumed.7

The Swedish immoderate use of hard liquor he saw as a great drawback to industry. He wanted the right of private distilling taken away from people and given to the highest bidder in each district so as to raise revenue for the state, "that is, if the consumption of brandy cannot be done away with altogether, which would be more desirable for the country's welfare and morality than all the income which could be realized from so pernicious a drink."

Granted however that it had to be sold, he recommended, much as the present Swedish liquor control has it, "that all public houses in town should be like bakers' shops, with an opening in the window, through which those who desired might purchase whisky and brandy without being allowed to enter the house and lounge about in the tap-room." 8

But Swedenborg was no total abstainer; he liked an occasional glass of wine which he probably also offered to his friends either in the garden or in his living room, "neat and genteel but plain," where stood the inlaid marble table he had brought from Italy. Robsahm says that "Swedenborg was not only a learned man but