Doings and Travels.
From 1734 to 1736, Swedenborg remained at home. In July, 1735, his father died; and a year after, Swedenborg went abroad, as he states in his diary, “for a sojourn of three or four years, to write and publish a certain book.” During his absence he resigned half of his official salary to his substitutes. His father having left him some money, he was the better able to do so. He journeyed through Denmark, Hanover, and Holland, and arrived at Rotterdam during the fair. Observing the amusements of the people, mountebanks, shows, etc., he took occasion to moralize thus upon the character and prosperity of the Dutch. “Here at Rotterdam, it has suggested itself to me to inquire why it is that God has blessed a people so barbarous and boorish as the Dutch, with such a fertile and luxuriant soil; that He has preserved them, for so long a course of years, from all misfortune; that He has raised them up in commerce above all other nations; and made their provinces the mart and emporium of the wealth of Europe and the world. On consideration, the first and principal cause of these circumstances appears to be, that Holland is a republic, which form of government is more pleasing to God than an absolute monarchy. In a republic, no veneration or worship is paid to any man, but the highest and lowest think themselves equal to kings and emperors; as may be seen from the characteristic bearing of every one in Holland. The only one whom they worship is God. And when God alone is worshiped, and men are not adored instead of Him, such worship is most acceptable to Him. Then again, in Holland, there is the greatest liberty. None are slaves, but all are as lords and masters under the government of the most high God; and the consequence is, that they do not depress their manliness either by shame or fear, but always preserve a firm and sound mind in a sound body; and with a free spirit, and an erect countenance, commit themselves and their property to God, who alone ought to govern all things. It is not so in absolute monarchies, where men are educated to simulation and dissimulation; where they learn to have one thing concealed in the breast, and to bring forth another upon the tongue; where their minds, by inveterate custom, become so false and counterfeit, that, in divine worship itself, their words differ from their thoughts, and they proffer their flattery and deceit to God himself, which certainly must be most displeasing to Him. This seems to be the reason why the Dutch are more prosperous in their undertakings than other nations.” Then, with rare discrimination, he adds, “but their worshiping mammon as a Deity, and caring for nothing but gold, is a thing which is not compatible with long prosperity.” The silent and uninfluential place which Holland now fills in Europe, places the seal of truth on these quiet lines.
The Roman Catholic Church seems to have attracted much of his attention in his travels, and the grossness and sensuality of its priesthood were strongly remarked upon. “The monks,” says he, “at Roye, are fat and corpulent, and an army of such fellows might be banished without loss to the State. They fill their bellies, take all they can get, and give the poor nothing but fine words and blessings; and yet they are willing to take from the poor all their substance for nothing. What is the good of bare-footed Franciscans?” In Paris, he spent a year and a half. There also he was amazed at the clerical riot and corruption. “It is found,” he observes, “that the tax which they term the dixièmes, yields annually thirty-two millions sterling; and that the Parisians spend two-thirds of this amount over their own city. One-fifth of the whole possessions of the kingdom is in the hands of the clerical order. If this condition of things last long, the ruin of the empire will be speedy.” He little dreamed of the fearful verification which these words would receive.
His journal in Paris reveals the fact of his hearty enjoyment of sight-seeing and amusements. Visits to churches, monasteries, palaces, gardens, museums, and theatres, evidence with what zest he drank the cup of life, and with what interest he looked upon men and their affairs. In this respect we do well to compare Swedenborg with many whom the world in its ignorance associate with him. At no period of his life was he a cold self-righteous ascetic, looking abroad upon men with a bitter and accusing scowl. At no time did he insult his Maker with upbraidings that his fate was to live in an evil world, and with a wicked generation. He received life with thankfulness, partook temperately of all its lawful pleasures, did his duty, and took care while living with the world to keep himself unspotted from its evil. This social discipline was one of the Divine means by which he was fitted for the full performance of his future mission.
We are not informed of the nature of the work which he at this time went abroad to write and publish. From his manuscripts, however, it appears that he was preparing materials and disciplining his mind for his great work, the “Animal Kingdom,” by writing short papers on various physiological subjects. Many of these papers have been translated and published under the title of “Posthumous Tracts.”
Leaving Paris in March, 1738, Swedenborg directed his steps toward Italy, and after visiting its principal cities, arrived at Rome on the 25th September. Mr. Rich, in his “Biography of Swedenborg,” remarks,—“This visit should be a memorable one, for it brought the church of the past and the future into a singular communion with each other;—Rome in the still atmosphere and fading light of autumn, with all its trophies of Pagan art, and its hoary traditions; and Swedenborg, the predestined Seer of the last ages, whose eye was just kindling with the light of inspiration. We should lose all faith in the instinctive prescience of the human spirit when great events are at hand, if we might not believe that a presentiment of something in the shadowy distance, connecting his future with the strange mystery of the city, did not cross, for a moment, the mind of Swedenborg, when he entered the once holy and revered metropolis of the faith.”
After a sojourn of five months, Swedenborg left Rome on the 15th of February, 1739, varying his homeward route. His journal from the 17th of March, 1739, when he was at Genoa, is a blank, and his after wanderings we can only conjecture. “It is most probable,” says Wilkinson, “that he deposited the manuscript of the “Economy of the Animal Kingdom,” at Amsterdam, on his way from Leipsic to Sweden, in 1740; that he lived in his own country from 1740 or 1741 till 1744, and in the latter year went again to Holland, and from thence came to England, where we meet him in 1745.”
In 1740-41, Swedenborg published at Amsterdam his “Economy of the Animal Kingdom;” and in 1744-45, the “Animal Kingdom,” Parts I. and II. at the Hague, and Part III. in London.