Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

Sweden BuRGH. The following anecdote respecting the celebrated Swedenburgh, is extracted from Thiebault's original Anecdotes of Frederick the Great, just published.

(U.S.Gaz.)

I know not on what occasion it was that, conversing one day with the queen, [of Sweden] on the subject of the celebrated visionary Swedenburg, we expressed a desire, particularly M. Marian and myself, to know what opinion was entertained of him in Sweden. I on my part related what had been told me respecting him by my chamberlain d'Ha-- inon, who was still alive, and who had been ambassador from Prussia both to Holland and France.- It was that his brother-in-law, ambassador from Holland to Stockholm, having died suddenly, a shop-keeper demanded of his widow the payment of a bill for some articles of drapery, which she remembered had been paid in her husband's life time : that the widow not being able to find the shop keeper's receipt, had been advised to consult with Swedenburg, who she was told could converse with the dead whenever he pleased; that she accordingly adopted this advice, though she did so less from credulity than curiosity : and that at the end of a few days Swedenburgh informed her, that her deceased husband had taken the shop-keeper's receipt for the money on such a day, and at such an hour, as he was reading such an article in Bayle in his cabinet: that his attention being called immediately afterwards to some other concern, he had put the receipt into the book to mark the place at which he had left off, where in fact it was found in the page described. The queen replied, that though she was little disposed to believe in such seeming miracles, she had nevertheless been willing to put the power of M. Swedenburg whom he was previously unacquainted with the anecdotes I had related, and it was one of those that had most excited her astonishment, though she had never taken the pains to ascertain the truth of it: that M. Swedenburgh having come one evening to her court, she had taken him aside, and begged him to inform himself of her deceased brother the prince royal of her taking leave of him for the court of Stockholm... She added, that what he had said was of a nature to render it impossible that the prince could have repeated it to any one, nor had it ever escaped her own lips: that some days after Swedenburg returned, when she was seated at cards, and requested she would grant him a private audience ; to which she replied, he might communicate what he had to say before the company : but that Swedenburg assured her he could not declare his errand in the presence of witnesses ; that in consequence of this intimation the queen became agitated, gave her cards to another lady, and requested M. de Schwerin, who was also present when she related the story to us, to accompany her : that they accordingly went together into another apartment, where she posted M. de Schwerin at the door, and advanced towards the furthest extremity of it with Swedenburg, who said to her, " You took, madam, your last leave of the prince of Prussia your late and august brother, at Charlottenburg, on such a day and at such an hour in the afternoon. As you were passing afterwards through the long gallery, in the castle of Charlottenburg, you met him again. He then took you by the hand, and led you to such a window, where you could not be overheard, and then said to you these words-." The queen did not repeat the words, but protested to us they were the very same her brother had pronounced, and that she retained the most perfect recollection of them. She added, that she had nearly fainted with the shock she experienced, and called on M. de Schwerin to answer for the truth of what she had said, who in his laconick style contented himself with saying, " All you have said, madam, is perfectly true, at least as far as I am concerned." I ought to add, that though the queen laid great stress on the truth of her recital, she professed herself at the same time incredulous to Swedenburg's supposed conferences with the dead. " A thousand events," said she, appear inexplicable and supernatural to us, who know only the immediate consequences of them; and men of quick parts, who are never so well pleased as when they exhibit something wonderful, take advantage of this to gain an extraordinary reputation. M. Swedenburg was a man of learning, and of some talent in his way, but I cannot imagine by what means he obtained the knowledge of what could have been repeated to no one. However, I have no faith in his having had a conference with my brother."