work; and should this feeble testimony to its worth excite any one to read and _study_ it,—and it is a work which should be studied, if read at all,—we know that he will say, as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon, “It was a true report that I heard of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and behold the half was not told me.” We have not spoken of those chapters which come between the expositions of Scripture, because the subjects therein treated of will recur in notices of his other books. They serve to diversify the work, and to relieve the mind tasked with the deep thought involved in the spiritual expositions, by the contemplation of some of the leading facts of the future life. The “Arcana Cœlestia” was translated into English by the late venerable John Clowes, a clergyman of the Established Church in Manchester, and a most cordial receiver and preacher of the doctrines of the New Church. It is published in twelve octavo volumes, with an index prepared by Swedenborg himself, which forms a thirteenth volume. This index has been greatly extended by Elihu Rich, filling two large octavos. Several editions of the “Arcana” have also been published in America; and the sale, considering the size and cost of the work, has been in both countries very considerable. It is a work which will in coming days run through many cheap editions; and when that time shall come, many will wonder why such a treasury of spiritual wisdom lay so long in our midst, and yet men thought so little of it. But the world is approaching Swedenborg as fast as steady progress will permit. CHAPTER XI. _Anecdotes._ Of Swedenborg’s external life, during the composition of the “Arcana Cœlestia,” we know little. From his “Spiritual Diary,” we incidentally learn that he was in Stockholm on the 23d of July, 1756. A revolution had been attempted, and the leaders of the conspiracy, Count Brahe and Baron Horn, were executed on that day. Swedenborg writes of Brahe thus:—“Brahe was beheaded at ten o’clock in the morning, and spoke with me at ten at night; that is to say, twelve hours after his execution. He was with me almost without interruption for several days. In two days’ time, he began to return to his former life, which consisted in loving worldly things; and after three days, he became as he was before in the world, and was carried into the evils that he had made his own before he died.” (S. Diary, 5099.)