Page:The Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/30

 that crossed the stream, and dared Jesper to follow. Not to be outdone, he made the attempt, but fell into the stream and was swept under the wheel. Catching his feet, the wheel stopped, but held him fast. With great exertions he was got out, apparently lifeless. No wonder that, after his life was brought to him again, he resolved "never to forget, either morning or evening, to commit himself to God's keeping, and to the protection of the holy angels." It was a marked feature of his whole after life to believe in Divine interposition and protection. From a child it used to be his greatest delight to read the Bible and preach, in his way, to poor people. Unfortunate in his early teachers at Upsal, he went at sixteen to Lund, where he had good instruction, but developed youthful conceit. "When I went to Upsal," he says, "I was dressed in blue stockings, Swedish leather shoes, and a simple blue mantle. I never ventured to go forward in church, but always remained near the benches of the common people. But in Lund I became as wordly-minded as the rest. I procured for myself a long, black wig,—I, too, was dark and tall; to this I added a, large, long overcoat, and above all a scarf over my shoulders, such as wordly-minded people wore. In my own opinion, there was no one equal to me; I thought all should make room for me, and take off their hats very humbly in my presence."

Fortunately this young pride was early abashed. At the age of twenty-one, after a little travelling in Denmark. Jesper applied to Magister Brunner, at Upsal, for a theological scholarship. "Brunner, astonished at the student dress of Lund, which Swedberg had not yet laid aside, looked at him sharply, crossed himself, and asked whether he, who was dressed in such a worldly manner and in court costume, desired to become a minister of the gospel. Swedberg did not wait to be asked this question a second time. He went home, took off the offensive garb, and purchased a simple grayish-black cloak; and this, he added, was done just at the right time." Magister Brunner soon learned to like the