Life in Amsterdam—Character of the Dutch—Meets Dr. Beyer—Republishes his “New Method of Finding the Longitudes”—The Apocalypse Explained.
It is very trying to the biographer of Swedenborg that he can find so little to narrate of his outward life. Of his life in Amsterdam we have no particulars whatever. No Boswell was there to note down his sayings, describe his doings, his company, and conduct. But had even a Boswell been there, we fear he would have found but little to note. Quiet days in his study, calm reserve toward all around, musing, solitary rambles in the streets, would supply but few incidents for the pen of the biographer. We must be content to know that, from out his quiet study in Amsterdam, proceeded books destined to be centers of spiritual light to the church and to the world.
Swedenborg liked the Dutch, and with good reason, for he was favored to know them in that land where the secrets of all hearts are unveiled. He reports that the Dutch, above all other people, are under the influence of the spiritual love of trade, valuing it for its uses, and regarding money only as a means to these uses, and not, like the Jews, as the final end. They are, moreover, inflexible in their obedience to the truth, when known; and in many other respects are an estimable people.
It is probable that Swedenborg returned home toward the end of 1764; for in the first half of the next year, we find him in Stockholm. Soon, however, he set out upon new travels; and in 1765, while at Gottenburg, waiting for a vessel to England, he accidentally (as men say) met with Dr. Beyer, Professor of Greek, and a member of the Consistory of Gottenburg. Having heard that Swedenborg was mad, he was surprised to hear him talk sensibly, and manifest no symptom of his suspected infirmity. He therefore invited Swedenborg to dine with him the following day, in company with Dr. Rosen. After dinner, Dr. Beyer expressed a desire to hear from himself a full account of his doctrines; upon which Swedenborg, animated by the request, spoke so clearly, and in so wonderful a manner, that the Doctor and his friend were quite astonished. They gave him no interruption; but when he ceased, Dr. Beyer requested Swedenborg to meet him the next day at Mr. Wenngren’s and to bring with him a paper, containing the substance of his conversation, in order that he might consider it more attentively. Swedenborg came the day following, according to promise; and, taking the paper out of his pocket, in the presence of the other two gentlemen, he trembled, and appeared much affected, the tears flowing down his cheeks. Presenting the paper to Dr. Beyer, “Sir,” said he, “from this day the Lord has introduced you into the society of angels, and you are now surrounded by them.” They were all greatly affected. He then took his leave, and the next day embarked for England.
Dr. Beyer sent immediately for Swedenborg’s writings, and soon became deeply engrossed in their study. In order to arrange their subjects more distinctly in his mind, he set about compiling an Index to them; which as he prepared it, he sent, sheet by sheet, to Amsterdam to be printed. He was thirteen years in compiling the work, and on the day he sent off the last sheet corrected, he sickened, took to his bed, and in a few days departed to the spiritual world.
The result of Dr. Beyer’s study of Swedenborg’s writings, was a firm belief in their doctrines, and an open and enlightened advocacy of them, declaring in the public Consistory his full assent to them. As might naturally be expected, he suffered much obloquy and persecution for his adherence to the truth; but he was consoled in having the firm friendship of Swedenborg, and in being favored with receiving from him many letters, sympathizing with him in his trials, and answering many of his questions on doctrinal and psychological matters.
Swedenborg did not make a long stay in England; but after a few weeks, or perhaps months, proceeded to Holland, spending the winter of 1765-66 at Amsterdam. There, in the spring of 1766, he republished (it is supposed by the solicitation of friends,) his youthful work on a “New Method of Finding the Longitudes.” “This method,” as he informed the Swedish Archbishop, Menander, “of calculating the ephemerides by pairs of stars, several persons in foreign countries were then employing, who had experienced great advantage by the observations made according to it for a series of years.”
From the time of the completion of the Arcana Cœlestia, in 1756, Swedenborg had been gradually composing an extensive work on the Apocalypse. The exposition was continued as far as the tenth verse of the nineteenth chapter, filling four large quarto volumes. He then laid the work aside—thinking, probably, that it was too voluminous and elaborate—and commenced anew, but on a considerably reduced scale. The former Exposition, a clearly written manuscript, ready for the printer, after sustaining a narrow escape from burning, (the house of a gentleman who had it for perusal having caught fire,) was published in the original Latin, in four quarto volumes, in 1790, eighteen years after the author’s death. It was translated into English and printed in six octavos, under the title of the Apocalypse Explained, in 1815. It is a most valuable work, and one that could not well be spared from the Swedenborg Library. Within its pages are several distinct treatises on very important subjects, which, if extracted, would form complete and excellent books of themselves. The exposition of the spiritual sense of the text is very copiously illustrated by parallel passages from other parts of the Word; and thus it must ever be a most useful work to the New Church preacher, as affording him a ready key to the internal sense of the Scriptures.
The shorter exposition Swedenborg himself published at Amsterdam, in 1766, under the title of the Apocalypse Revealed. As was his custom, he distributed copies of the work widely, sending it to the universities and superior clergy, and to many eminent persons in England, Holland, Germany, France, and Sweden.
We will now make a few notes on some of the most remarkable features of Swedenborg’s exposition of that strange and mysterious book, the Apocalypse.