“I live on terms of familiarity and friendship with all the bishops of my country, who are ten in number; as also with the sixteen senators, and the rest of the nobility; for they know that I am in fellowship with angels. The King and Queen also, and the three princes, their sons, show me much favor. I was once invited by the King and Queen to dine at their table,—an honor which is, in general, granted only to the nobility of the highest rank; and likewise, since, with the hereditary Prince. They all wished for my return home,—so far am I from being in any danger of persecution in my own country, as you seem to apprehend, and so kindly wish to provide against; and should anything of the kind befall me elsewhere, it can not hurt me. But I regard all that I have mentioned as matters of little moment; for, what far exceeds them, I have been called to a holy office by the Lord himself, who most graciously manifested himself in person to me, his servant, in the year 1743; when he opened my sight to the view of the spiritual world, and granted me the privilege of conversing with spirits and angels, which I enjoy to this day. I am a Fellow, by invitation, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm: but I have never sought admission into any other Literary Society, as I belong to an angelic society, wherein things relating to heaven and the soul are the only subjects of discourse and entertainment; whereas the things which occupy the attention of our Literary Societies are such as relate to the world and the body. As for the world’s wealth, I have what is sufficient, and more I neither seek nor wish for. Your letter has drawn the mention of these things from me, with the view, as you suggest, that any ill-grounded prejudices may be removed. Farewell! and from my heart I wish you all felicity in this world and in the next; which I make no doubt of your attaining, if you look and pray to our Lord.—E. Swedenborg.” Dated, London, 1769. Mr. Hartley, in 1781, when far advanced in years, thus gives his opinion of Swedenborg:—