Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/222

 in former years I am not certainly informed, though I have heard by those who have been long acquainted with him that they were employed in the same manner as I am going to relate; but what I have been an eye-witness to, I can declare with certain truth; and therefore I do aver that this gentleman, with indefatigable pains and labor, spent one whole year in studying and writing the first volume of the Arcana Cœlestia, was at the expense of two hundred pounds to print it, and also advanced two hundred pounds more for the printing of this second volume; and when he had done this, he gave express orders that all the money that should arise in the sale of this large work should be given toward the charge of the propagation of the Gospel. He is so far from desiring to make a gain of his labors, that he will not receive one farthing back of the four hundred pounds he has expended; and for that reason his works will come exceedingly cheap to the public."

In the spring of 1750 Swedenborg returned again to Stockholm, having spent the intervening time partly in London, but mostly in Holland. In Stockholm he remained, tending his garden and busily employed on the Arcana. We hear no