Page:Lecture on Swedenborg.pdf/1

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IN THE GUILDHALL, BATH, 29th OCTOBER, 1855.

Reprinted from “Keenes' Bath Journal.”

third lecture of the present course of Lectures, provided by the Committee of the Athenæum, was delivered at the Guildhall, on Monday evening, by Mr. George Dawson, on Swedenborg. Mr. Shenstone presided; and there was, as at the former lectures, a large and respectable company, who from their frequent applause were evidently delighted with the lecturer, and appeared equally astonished and pleased at his descriptions of the genius, character, and opinions of Swedenborg, who to most of them was no doubt previously a stranger, or only known through the medium of bigoted and ignorant prejudices.

Mr. Dawson began by observing that Emanuel Swedenborg,—long despised and often forgotten—had the privilege that belongs to all men who devote their lives to thought—that as the world grows older, they get more reverenced, better known, and better loved. The men that are run after during their lives—the men of action, and the men of noise, receive their recompense in this world. Charles the Twelfth was a man of great abilities, a wonderful soldier, and in some respects a great king, but he was fading very fast from men’s memory; whilst Swedenborg, who was his cotemporary, [sic] had the privilege of finding a larger audience in every successive generation. The king is now scarcely known, as to any influence he exercised upon the world, while the philosopher’s influence is great, and is becoming greater every day. It was one thing to have a name written in a book, and another to have a name always living, always connected with thought, and always bringing forth, in each successive generation, new thoughts and new feelings. Swedenborg had the privilege of finding a larger audience every decade that passes, and in proof of this, he need only refer to the audience before him. It would have astonished Swedenborg’s friends, a quarter of a century ago, could they have known that in a few years, a popular lecture would be given upon Swe-