EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
him, since I have had an opportunity of knowing it pure and uncontaminated."
After declaring that Swedenborg was no impostor, but a pious Christian man, and referring to the "three proofs generally known that he had actually intercourse with spirits," Stilling continues—
"But I must add here a fourth experimental proof which has not been made public before, and which is fully as important as any of the foregoing. I can vouch for the truth of it with the greatest certainty.
"About the year 1770 there was a merchant in Elberfeld with whom during seven years of my residence there I lived in close intimacy. He was a strict mystic in the purest sense. He spoke little, but what he said was like golden fruit on a salver of silver. He would not have dared for all the world knowingly to tell a falsehood. This friend of mine, who has long ago left this world for a better, related to me the following story:—
"His business required him to take a journey to Amsterdam, where Swedenborg at that time resided; and having heard and read much of this singular man, he formed the intention of visiting
238
