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officer than the man of letters. We may fairly ascribe also to this artist the very clever portrait (unmarked by a painter's name) of E. W. Montague, the wild son of the celebrated Lady Mary, who is represented here as well. There is Horace Walpole, with his diletant look; Churchill, the now almost forgotten satirist, once perhaps the most prominent writer of his day, sleek and sensual; Hook, the musical composer in the palmy days of the Vauxhall Gardens, with a cheery twinkle, reminding one of the present Dean of Chichester.

Bentley and Dolland represent classes of men, patient and hard-working, to whom our country owes more than is usually conceded; and the pleasant homely Teutonic face of the first Herschel, records a family now happily naturalized among us, with whom ability seems hereditary. We see the clever face of Baretti, Johnson's friend, whose dictionary we have often so gratefully turned over; and notice how the artist (Sir Joshua) has marked his shortness of sight without making it painfully prominent. We seem to join the gifted family of William Sharp, gaily gliding in their barge down the Thames, then unpolluted with filth, undisturbed by the paddles of perpetual steamers a river which people could take their pleasure on. We may look on the elegant face of Mrs. Hallam, the mother of the well-known historian, and mark how his noble manly features yet bore to latest life the stamp of that sweetness here portrayed by Gainsborough. To us, and we doubt not to many more, the carrying on thus the past history of our country into present times has been a source of lively pleasure. We feel how one generation links itself to another, how the influence of the past connects itself with the present, and we bear away with us, as we gaze on the faces of those remembered for great abilities, ennobled by great deeds, the hope, the belief, that the banner of our country will yet be marked with even greater names, in times that are still to come.

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ART. III.-Emanuel Swedenborg: his Life and Writings. By WILLIAM WHITE. Two volumes. London: 1867.

THIS book is not pleasant reading in the dog days. To be repeatedly lifted up to Heaven and thrust down into hell, with a ponderous and prosy mystic for a companion, is fagging work; yet it is what the readers of Mr. White's corpulent octavos must endure. Few persons, we suppose, have had this experience, for it is not likely that 1,230 pages of dreary matter, which these volumes contain, can have had many readers resolute enough to persevere through their tedious length. We do not, however, blame the author for the dulness of his book, we rather thank him for his praiseworthy efforts to relieve it by the vivacity of his own style. The fault lies with its subject. Swedenborg led a most insipid life, and the few facts that are known of him give no cause for wishing that we knew any more. Antecedently we should have supposed angels and devils to be rather exhilarating society; but under Swedenborg's introduction they turn out to be flat and common-place to the last degree, and this is all the more disappointing when we are informed that the angels and devils walked the earth as apostles, princes, and popes-the princes and popes, oddly enough, being chiefly angelical, while the apostles are for the most part diabolical.

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If, however, Mr. White has failed to produce an entertaining biography, we must give him credit for having written a candid and conscientious book. He is an admirer of Swedenborg, but his way of manifesting his admiration is such as to hold up Swedenborg to the contempt rather than to the admiration of others. He is not a Swedenborgian, and he treats the sect which is called by that name with pitiless ridicule. He says in his preface that, with a few exceptions, Swedenborg has undergone no criticism. He has been cursed without reserve, and he has been blessed without reserve, but he has been rarely ' appreciated.' All this, however, will be changed now. Looked at through Mr. White's disenchanting medium, few will think Swedenborg worthy either of blessing or cursing. As regards the appreciation, the estimate cannot range very highly of a sect which traces its order of ministers to a fraudulent ticket trick, and whose founder kept a mistress and never washed his face. But we are anticipating.

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Emanuel Swedenborg was the second son of Jesper Svedberg, who was the son of Daniel Isaksson, a coppersmith in Fahlun. This

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repeated change of name was the consequence-the first change from Isaksson to Svedberg, of a custom which gave the name of the homestead (Sveden) to those who were there born; the second change, from Svedberg to Swedenborg, of the ennobling of Jesper's sons by Queen Ulrika Eleonora, sister to Charles XII, in compliance with Jesper's pertinacious entreaties. Emanuel was born on the 29th January, 1688; but after he was converted he always declared that the year of his birth was 1689, in obedience, as he affirmed, to a 'spiritual emendation of the date.' Of his grandfather, Isaksson, a single anecdote is told, which is worthy of repetition as Mr. White relates it :

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'Daniel Isaksson and his wife Anna were pious, industrious, and poor, and had quite a flock of children, whom they brought up in a godly, severe, and serious manner. My mother," writes Jesper, "was to me all that Monica was to Augustine." Isaksson reckoned his family the source of all his blessings, and that they were to him means of income and prosperity. After dining, he would sometimes say, "Thank you, my children, for dinner! I have dined with you, and not you with me. God has given me food for your sake," a speech pregnant with that wisdom which is foolishness to the world that takes Malthus for a prophet '-Life of Swedenborg, vol i. p. 1.

His father is a character of some interest, as it appears in Mr. White's pages. He was a strange mixture of shrewd worldlywisdom, and sincere religious energy; of blunt independence, and close clinging to kings and courts; of fearless hostility to popular vices, and a keen relish for popular applause. He is worth bestowing some attention upon before we turn to his more illustrious son Jesper was born in 1653, and his parents were decided by his bookish inclinations to bring him up to the ministry. They accordingly put him to college at Upsala for three years, and then passed him on to Sund. At the latter place he played the dandy in contrast to the sober, coarse dress to which he had been accustomed; but this gaiety was abandoned in deference to the rebuke of a theological professor who asked him if he hoped to become a clergyman in a courtier's dress?' At this early period spiritualistic intimacies were enjoyed by Jesper, and the constant presence of spirits, good and evil, and at times open intercourse with them, was Svedberg's assured faith.' He had visions, and held long and particular conversations with angels. It is remarkable that these manifestations of the spirit-world faded away from the early life of Jesper, to reappear in the more developed and systematic experiences of his son Emanuel.

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At thirty he married his first wife, and, six months after, he took advantage of the fortune she had brought him, to leave her and go for a year's travel. He visited Oxford and became acquainted with Dr. Fell, and it is curious to note at this present

time, when Dr. Pusey's criticism of the pretensions to catholicity of the Lutheran churches' has drawn attention to the Swedish communion, that Svedberg and Bishop Fell talked much about 'ecclesiastical union,' but came to no more definite conclusion than that 'it could never be effected save by the hand of God, prayer, and a peaceful mind.' After his return he made rapid progress in the royal favour, to which he became introduced through his position as chaplain to the King's Regiment of Cavalry Life Guards, his duties as such giving him opportu nity to assist the Court chaplain. A country living, a theological professorship, and the Deanery of Upsala, followed in quick succession from royal patronage. Unlike the general type of clients upon courtly favour, Svedberg set his face against the secularity and indifference of the clergy, and so became classed the Pietists,' as all were called who desired to see some among ( spiritual life quicken the dry bones of the Lutheran ministry. In 1696 he lost his first wife, the mother of Emanuel. In the spring of 1697, he lost his first patron, Charles XI. The former loss he repaired in the autumn of the latter year.

The hero of the north, the youthful Charles XII., turned out to be as good a friend of Jesper Svedberg as his father had been. An anecdote, highly characteristic of both patron and client, is related as follows:

'Military glory is the most expensive thing in the world, and Charles's wars pinched poor Sweden dreadfully. The clergy were used to pay one-tenth of their incomes in taxes, but the king now demanded a second tenth. An exaction like this was felt very keenly, and some of the clergy laid their complaint before the Chapter of Upsala. The Archbishop, a gentle timid man, said the clergy ought really to suffer quietly, and wait for better times, and not embarrass the King when he was preparing for war. At this speech, up rose Svedberg, and replied, that if the clergy sought unfair relief, they ought to be admonished; but if fair, the Chapter had no other choice than to lay their case before the King. "Well," said the other members of the Chapter, "if you are are bold enough, you had better go and see the King." "Bold I am," replied Svedberg, "when duty prompts. Give me authority, and I will go to the King, confiding in God." His offer was at once accepted.

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'He started off to see Charles, and found him at Kungsör. He arrived on a Saturday, and found all busy preparing for a masquerade on Sunday. "Cannot you preach the masquerade out of the head of the King and his suite?" he asked the astonished clergyman of the place. "Since you cannot, then I will try." On Sunday Svedberg occupied the pulpit, and delivered a sermon with his accustomed plainness and warmth, against the profanation of the Sabbath by such sports. "I fear," said he, "if the masquerade go on, Sweden will never forget the bloody shirts that will come out of this war.' To his joy the masquerade was abandoned; whereon he remarks: "A zealous Samuel or Nathan is a means of welfare to any kingdom, whilst a smoothtongued Uria works no end of evil."

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1 See the Introductory Essay to the Essays on the Reunion of Christendom,' in which Dr. Pusey makes repeated reference to an article that appeared in vol. xiii. of this review, on 'The Swedish Church.

'Svedborg sent his petition to the King, writing under his name, 1 Moses, xlvii. 22. "What does that mean?" said Charles. "It will be his cypher," said Count Piper. Some one looked at a Bible and read: "Only the land of the priests bought Joseph not; for the priests had a portion assigned them by Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands." Then said Charles, "Let the clergy alone, and let them be taxed no more than before." With this decision, Svedberg returned in triumph to his brethren in Upsala.'-Vol i. p. 20.

Courage, under whatever form it displayed itself, had a fascination for Charles XII., and Svedberg's bold behaviour in the matter of the tithes and the masquerade won his lasting favour. In 1702 he was appointed Bishop of Skara.

Some corespondence has appeared lately in the columns of the Guardian, respecting the political position of the Swedish Church, and the extent to which the State exercises control over the clergy; and it is curious to observe that the champion of the Swedish communion in that controversy is Mr. Svedberg, chaplain of the Swedish Embassy in London. Let his redoubtable namesake (and, for aught we know, ancestor) the Bishop of Skara, be heard in evidence:

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The Bishopric of Skara did not in the least buy off Svdberg's importunities, or make him a bit more courtly. Charles's wild and terrible wars every year pinched Sweden barder and harder in men and money. As a proof of the extremity to which he was reduced, he issued a decree that every rector of a parish should fit out a dragoon, and every curate a foot soldier. This Svedberg thought a cruel infliction, and he says: "I took courage unto myself, and seeking the help of God, sat down and wrote to Charles XII. then in Poland, a mighty serious and powerful letter, dated 21st December, 1705." He told the King that the clergy were as willing as any of his people to help him to their utmost in his wars, and they only desired to be dealt with equitably; but the equipment of dragoons and soldiers they found intolerable. "If the least thing is wanting in their accoutrements, a clergyman has to hear and swallow hard words, scoffs, and snubbing at the mustering table, whilst peasants and others stand by grinning and shewing their white teeth. Hence the priesthood is brought into contempt, the Holy Ghost is angered, and pastors lose control over their flocks." He then describes how pitilessly the men-servants of parsons are carried off for soldiers, so that they have to gather sticks in the woods, plough, thresh corn, clean out stables, and perform other menial services. I have myself seen greyheaded servants of the Lord driving oxen at the plough, until they dropped down with fatigue, and remained lying on the ground. The clergy are forced to think more of guns, swords, and carbines, than of the Word of God, and have to waste their time in galloping about to musterings and reviews. Poor curates cannot buy the books their duties require; they have no decent broad-cloth coats and cloaks, but go about in plain home-spun, and some have had to borrow money at usury, and even to sell their bibles, in order to rig out a soldier." He then reminds the King of his pious childhood, of the help God has given him in battle, even as He did to heroes of old, like Joshua, Gideon, and David, and quotes Ezra vii. 24. "Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethenims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them; praying him to exempt in like manner the Lord's priests from recruiting and

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