8 J. V. HULTKEANTZ 



in a letter communicated to the Times for April 4th, 1823, [Appendix, 

 No. 4), signed J. I. Hawkins \ partly in an article in the July — Septem- 

 ber number of the Intellectual Repository for the same year is (p. 471), 

 probably composed by the editor of the periodical, the Rev. S. Noble ^. 

 The last-mentioned account, the author of which had heard it related 

 by an eye-witness, namely, »the warm friend of those [Swedenborg's] 

 writings now abroad», whose guest the stranger was when the visit 

 to the vault was planned, is communicated with some additions^ but 

 otherwise almost word for word, in Robeet Hindmaesh's^ Rise and Pro- 

 gress of the Neiv Jerusalem. Church lo (p. 399). I shall come back later 

 to the accounts of the theft, and here only take up for consideration what 

 is reported concerning the opening of the coffin about the year 1790. 

 Hindmaesh's account contains chiefly the assertion that the ini- 

 tiative in the opening of the coffin was not taken by a Swedenborgian, 

 but by a »foreign gentleman who held the absurd tenets of the old 

 sect of the Rosierucians», and who, at a dinner at the house of a Swe- 

 denborgian, expressed the opinion that Swedenborg had discovered the 

 secret of the Rosierucians and could by the use of an expensive elixir 

 »protract his existence as long as he pleased», and that he, »desirous 

 to put off the infirmities of age, had renewed his existence and with- 

 drawn to some other part of the world, causing a sham funeral to be 

 performed to avoid discovery.» In the warmth of the dispute the stran- 

 ger and two or three other persons betook themselves immediately to 

 the church, where with the sexton's assistance they secured entrance 

 to the vault and opened the outer wooden coffin, whereupon »the top 

 of the inner coffin of lead was sawed across the breast and the upper 

 part taken off.» After it had been established, to the astonishment of 

 the Rosierucians, that Swedenboeg's mortal remains lay in the coffin, 

 it was closed »as well as they could.» 



^ John Isaac Hawkins, born 1772, engineer and noted technicnl inventor, one of the 

 first members of the New Church in London. Emigrated in 1S4S to America, where lie 

 died in 1855. 



^ Samuel Noble, born 1779, one of the founders of the »Society for Printing anil Pub- 

 lishing the Writings of SwEDENBOF.r;». A beloved priest of the New Ghurclijin London from 

 1819 onwards. Editor of the Tntdlcctual Hepositonj for the New C/iiurh. Died in 1853. 



' Robert Hindmarsh, born 1759, printer. Publisher of Swedenborg's writings. The 

 foremost of the organizers of the New Church, and an enthusiastic preacher within the same 

 at Salford near Manchester. Wrole in 1824 — 34.: Rise and Progress of the New Jerimilem 

 Church, which was, however, not published until 1861. Died in 1835. 



