Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/366

348 Hartley that as he had influential friends he was in no danger of persecution, nor did he need money, he had as much "of this world's wealth" as he needed.

This letter Mr. Hartley said he received "as reverently as if it had come down from heaven," congratulating Sweden (a little prematurely) on receiving the Lord in His Apostle, and begging Swedenborg to instruct, exhort, and dispose of him in any way whatever.

To begin with, Hartley translated The Intercourse of the Soul and Body, which Swedenborg had just published in Latin in London, and the translation was also published. Hartley made himself Swedenborg's translator and defender in England, while he and Dr. Messiter, together with a Mr. Hampe, are said to have been his most intimate friends in London. They brought others to see the old man, among them good Mr. Cookworthy, a Quaker, who also was impressed.6 Swedenborg's circle in London does not seem ever to have been as extensive, fashionable, and gay as it was in Amsterdam, but it made up in uncritical devotion what it lacked in entertainment.

Swedenborg was not, however, one of those who, feeling "unappreciated" in their own country, avoid their compatriots abroad. He always visited and kept up with the Swedish colony wherever he went, and in London he had a special friend in Mr. Christopher Springer.7

Mr. Springer, when he talked about it in later years, was himself surprised that he, who was "not a learned man," should have known Swedenborg. He said that although they had been friends in Sweden he had not expected that the friendship should have become as constant as it proved to be. But perhaps he was a relief from uncritical devotion, in any case he affords another example of the width of Swedenborg's human interests. Christopher Springer was one of those unofficial and adventurous diplomats for his country which our own time was also to see. He took part, successfully, in the most secret negotiations between England, Russia, Sweden, and Prussia, and there was no doubt in his mind as to Swedenborg's clairvoyant power.

"All that he has told me of my deceased friends," he said, "and