Emanuel Swedenborg His Life And Writings

e throne, but soon resigned the crown to her husband, Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse Cassel. Shortly after her accession, in 1719 she complied with Svedberg's pertinacious prayer and ennobled his sons. On this occasion Emanuel's surname was altered from Svedberg to Swedenborg. The Swedish Diet consisted of four houses: the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants or landholders who were not nobles. The house of nobles was composed of upwards of two thousand members, and it was into this crowd that Emanuel was introduced, but was thereby created neither Count nor Baron, as some persist in calling him. Sweden had suffered so severely from the despotism of Charles XIL, that the Diet resolved to put some check on the kingly power. To this Bishop Svedberg was warmly opposed. He thought that absolute power belonged to the King by Divine right, and he saw many administrative advantages in the King's will being supreme: one had only to gain access to the King and hear his Yea or Nay, instead of running from office to office and enduring delay after delay when the least matter required attention or execution ; he therefore vehemently denounced any change, saying in the Diet, that " No King was read of in Scripture with the limited power you would give the Queen, and I abhor the ambition of men who aspire to be Kings of Kings." His opposition was construed into selfishness; Kings and Queens had proved very beneficial to him, and it was no more thannatural tha... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.