writings Swedenborg firmly asserted
their truth. 'In one hundred years,' Monsieur Ferelius quotes him as
saying, 'my doctrine will guide the _Church_.' He predicted the day
and hour of his death. On that day, Sunday, March 29, 1772, hearing the
clock strike, he asked what time it was. 'Five o'clock' was the answer.
'It is well,' he answered; 'thank you, God bless you.' Ten minutes later
he tranquilly departed, breathing a gentle sigh. Simplicity, moderation,
and solitude were the features of his life. When he had finished writing
any of his books he sailed either for London or for Holland, where he
published them, and never spoke of them again. He published in this
way twenty-seven different treatises, all written, he said, from the
dictation of Angels. Be it true or false, few men have been strong
enough to endure the flames of oral illumination.

"There they all are," said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a second shelf
on which were some sixty volumes. "The treatises on which the Divine
Spirit casts its most vivid gleams are seven in number, namely: 'Heaven
and Hell'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine
Wisdom'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence'; 'The
Apocalypse Revealed'; 'Conjugial Love and its Chaste Delights'; 'The
True Christian Religion'; and 'An Exposition of the Internal Sense.'
Swedenborg's explanation of the Apocalypse begins with these words,"
said Monsieur Becker, taking down and opening the volume nearest to him:
"'Herein I have written nothing of mine own; I speak as I am bidden by
the Lord, who said, through the same angel, to John: "Thou shalt not
seal the sayings of this Prophecy."' (Revelation xxii. 10.)

"My dear Monsieur Wilfrid," said the old man, looking at his guest, "I
often tremble in every limb as I read, during the long winter evenings
the awe-inspiring works in which this man declares with perfect
artlessness the wonders that are revealed to him. 'I have seen,' he
says, 'Heaven and the Angels. The spiritual man sees his spiritual
fellows far better than the terrestrial man sees the men of earth. In
describing the wonders of heaven and beneath the heavens I obey the
Lord's command. Others have the right to believe me or not as they
choose. I cannot put them into the state in which God has put me; it
is not in my power to enable them to converse with Angels, nor to work
miracles within their understanding; they alone can be the instrument of
their rise to a