I. Historical Investigations. 



From Swedenborg's death (1772) to the year 1816. 



At the close of the month of July, in the year 1770, Emanuel 

 SwEDEXBOEfi. then 82 years of age, left his native country never to 

 return. His immediate purpose was to superintend the printing in 

 Holland of his great work Vera Christiana Religio, written in Stock- 

 holm, and published in Amsterdam, June, 1771. In July or August of the 

 same year he traAclled to London, where he was busily engaged with 

 a new work, when, on Christmas Eve, 1771, he was overcome by 

 a stroke of paralysis, which affected one side of his body and depriv- 

 ed him of the power of speech. After having lain three ^eeks in a 

 »lethargic state», his condition improved and he recovered the use of 

 his tongue, but ^^•ithin a short time a relapse set in and on the 29th 

 of March, 1772, at 5 o'clock in the morning, he drew his last breath. 



The shrouding of Swedenborg's body was done at the house of 

 an ex-clerk of the Swedish Church by the name of Burkhardt, or ac- 

 cording to another statement by an »undertaker» named Robinson. The 

 body was put into three coffins, of which the innermost, which was 

 of lead, was carefully soldered^ and the remains were buried on the 

 5th of April, with the customary ceremonies, in the Swedish Church at 

 Princes Square, St. George's in the East, London. The coffin was depo- 

 sited in the burial vault under the altar of the church, the passage to 

 which is under the stones of the floor in the chancel. 



Judging from the register furnished by an ex-preacher of the 

 Swedish Legation in London, J. Palmée, 20' of all the persons buried 



' The numbei's in small black type refer to the literature listed at the close of this work 



