1777.

The needful application that the works mentioned in the above lift required, not allowing him to continue the necessary functions of his office as Affeffor beyond the year 1747, he gave up his place, and obtained in the fame year a discharge from the King, who gave him at the fame time the two requefts he had inferted in his petition for difmiflion; the firft of which was, to retain a moiety of his appointment to the place of Affefior during his life; and the fecond, that the above favour fhould be granted him without any derogation of title and rank: this permiffion of enjoying the benefits of the place after difmiffion, is a mark of the greateft favour. He was of a lively turn, and agreeable in company. As a fuitable recreation after his affiduous studies, he fought the agreeable advantages that the company and converfation of men of sense afforded him, by whom he was always furrounded, and ve ry much respected. He had the method either to fengthen or filence, by an agreeable, yet fenfible turn of argument, an indifcreet and fometimes foo bold curiofity that is often threfting itself into ferious matters. VOL. XII.

He wis

attentive, zealous, and faithful in the difcharge of the employs he had the care of. Whenever a vacancy of office fuitable to his own talents happened, he never prefented. himfelf as a candidate to fill it; and if he was advanced to honorable pofts, it was not through his feeking them, for he was a ways content in his station. When other calings did not permit him to difcharge the functions of his office, he preferred requesting his difmiffion to ftaying in it and not performing his duty, and was contented with retaining the title after having enjoyed the place thirty-one years. He affifted as a Member of the Houfe of Nobles, during feveral Diets, and his behaviour was fuch that none could reproach him with any mifcon

duct.

Swedenborg was never married. If he did not however engage in the marriage tie, it was not through a coldness or indifference. to the fex, for be efteemed the company and difcourfe of an agreeable and lively woman as an eftimable recreation; but his great and profound studies afforded him a pleasing tranquillity both day and night; and therefore he was often folitary but never fad. He enjoyed fo good a ftate of health, that he was fcarce ever indifpofed. Always happy in himself, he in all circumstances maintained the peace of his foul, and led a life happy in the fupreme degree, even unto the moment that Nature demanded her due. He was attacked with an apoplexy in London on the 24th of December 1773, and died in the moft ferene manner on the 29th of March following, being eighty-five years of age, rich in the honourable teftimonies of remembrance that he left behind him, fatis fied with the kind of life this world afforded, and the ftate of change he was about to enter into.

Of our Author's works feveral have been tranflated. Ift, A Theofophic Lucubration on the Nature of Influx as it refpects the Com-" munication and Operations of Soul and Body, 40. 1770. This is a curious performance, and difcovers good fenfe and learning in the writer; at the fame time he appears to be a vifionary and enthufiaft. To fatisfy our readers of the truth of this affertion, it will be fufficient to give the following extract from the prefent performance: " After this luc bration was finished, I prayed that the Lord would pleafe to grant me an interview with the difciples of Ariftotle, with those of Defcartes, also with those of Leibnitz, to the end that I might hear from them then tenets concerning the communication and operatons of the foul and body; and in answer to my prayer, nine perfons prefented therifelves to my view, three in each clafs, and ranged themfelves in order; the Ariftotelians to warus

H

wards my left hand, the Cartefians towards my right, and the Leibnitzians behind them; and through the intermediate spaces at a great diftance off appeared three men as if crowned with laurel, whom I knew by an influxile perception to be the three founders of thofe fects: Behind Leibnitz, stood one who had hold on the skirts of his garment, and I was told that he was Wolfius. Thefe nine men at their first interview, behaved courteously to one another, but on the appearance of a spirit from beneath, with a torch in his right hand, which he waved be fore their faces, they immediately commenced enemies, three against three, for they became inflamed with the zeal of difputation. The Ariftotelians who were of the schoolmen, began the debate, faying, Who does not perceive that influx proceeds from outward objects, through the fenfes into the foul, and that as plainly as a man is feen to pafs into a room at the door, and confequently that ideas are excited in the foul by the laws of fuch influx? Do not numberless inftances demonftrate that the bodily fenfes are the only inlets to the foul, and fufficiently establish the doctrine of phyfical influx? To this the Car tefians, who hitherto food with their fingers upon their eyebrows in a musing posture, replied as follow: What delufion is here! and how do you reafon from fallacious appearances only! Shew, if you can, what else caufes the tongue and lips to fpeak but thought, or the hands to work but the will; now thought and will proceed from the fou!, and not from the body; and hence likewife it is that the eyes fee, the ears hear, and the reft of the corporeal organs difcharge their respective functions. From thefe and many more convincing proofs, every one that has a grain of intellectual knowledge, may know of a truth, that influx proceeds not from tatter to fpirit, but contrariwife, and therefore we call it by the name of spiritual, and fometimes by that of occafional influx. ter this, the three who were followers of

Af

Leibnitz cried out and faid, We have heard and compared the arguments on both fides, and find that each has both its advan. tage and difadvantage; and being asked how they would compound the difference? they answered, By setting afide all influx from the foul to the body, and from the body to the foul, and by maintaining a joint consent and inftantaneous operation of both together, which a celebrated author has properly diftinguished by the name of Pre-established Harmony. A fpirit, it is faid, afterwards appeared waving a torch behind them; on which their ideas became confused, and they all acknowledged their ignorance. They agreed to decide the difpute by lots; three lots were accordingly put into a receiver: the perfon appointed to be the drawer, drew out that on which was written fpiritual influx. They concluded to abide by this; and an angel appeared who affured them, that the lot came not by hand of chance, but by a divine direction." The reader will make his own reflections on this wonderful narrative.

2d. The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerufalem; from the Commandments of the Decalogue. Tranflated from the Latin, 4to. 1775

3d. A Treatife concerning Heaven and Hell; containing a Relation of many wonderful things therein, as heard and feen by the Author, the Honorable Emanuel Swedenborg, of the Senatorial Order of Nobles in the Kingdom of Sweden. Now firft tranflated from the original Latin, 4to. 1778.

4th. The Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerufalem. Tranflated from the Latin of the Honorable Emanuel Swedenborg, of the Senatorial Order of the Nobles in the Kingdom of Sweden, 8vo. 1780.

gth. A Treatife concerning the New Jerufalem, and its Heavenly Doctrine, as revealed from Heaven. To which are pre. fixed, fome Obfervations concerning the New Heaven, and the New Earth, 8vo, 1786.

THE following information has been ob

tained by feveral respectable perfons, concerning the family and behaviour of the BalJamique Cagli ftro in his youth, on which account we think proper to give it to our rea

ders.

DECLARATION of the SIEUR BERNARD,

Mafler of Languages at Palermo.

"I the fubfcrib d declare, that the Chief Magistrate of Sicily having prefented me the copy of a letter dated Nov. 2, 1786, addreffed to M. Fontaine, Commiffary, in

which

which were feveral anecdotes of the famous Count Caglioftro; and upon being asked if I had written that letter, I answered, that I had collected thefe anecdotes from Antonio Bracconieri, uncle of Jof. Balfamo, called by himself Count Cagliostro, and that I fent them to Naples: and having read in the Leyden Gazette that the Commiffary Fontaine had a procefs, &c. in his hands, which made it fufpicious that Balfamo was no other than Cagliostro, and that this pretended Count Caglioftro had laid imputations on many refpectable perfons, by their names and offices I thought it my duty to address these anecdotes to M. Fontaine, without figning my name however, being defirous only of ferving my country, and preventing others from further impofitions by this impoftor.-In confequence of which I have made this declaraon at Palermo.

"HAVING paid my ufual exact attention, at the inftance of your Excellency, to clear úp every part of the anecdotes of the Count Cagliostro, contained in the letters written from Palermo and addreffed to Mr. Fontaine, and herewith fent to you, I fubmit to you the following Report.

"The author of thefe two letters, dated June and November 1786, is a Mr. Bernard, Master of Languages, at Palermo, who was made known to me by M. Bracconieri, entioned in thefe letters. Having afked the faid Mr. Bernard if he had written these two tetters, he answered, yes, and confirmed them by the declaration above.

"All that he fays, was told him by A. Bracconieri, Clerk in the house of Sieur

Francois Aubert and Co. and uncle of Jofeph

Balfamo of Palermo, to demonftrate that the pretended Count Caglioftro was the fame perfen with his nephew, is true; for having demanded of the faid A, Bracconieri the fame thing, he not only confirmed all that he faid to Bernard, but added feveral other circumftances of note, which prove that Balfamo Conceals himself under the feigned name of Count Caglioftro. I have made him write and fign his original depofition, which 1 now fend your Excellency, with the Memoir printed at Paris by the faid Caglioftro.

"By all which Bracconieri affirms, I have * found that Jofeph Balfamo, fon of Peter "Batíamo and Felice Bracconieri, was bap

"tifed the 8th of June 1743, in the Cathe"dral church of this city, having obtained "an extract of this figned by the grand "Chaplain, and the Coadjutor of the facra❝ments."

"As in the above act of baptism, I see that the child had been held by Jof. Brazil; by the procuration of Vincente Cagliostro, I examined the act of procuration, and found it in the minutes of the Notary Antonio Romafino.

"From these letters and public acts, there is a confiftent refult, and all the circumftances concur to prove, that the pretended C. Caglioftro is Jofeph Balfamo, of Palermo, &c. &c.

"Mr. Bernard gave me an account befides, that having afked a Meffinian, if there was any family of Caglioftro at Messina, he faid that he knew two of that name. Ant. Bracconieri has alfo affured me, that a fifter of his mother, aunt of Joseph Balsamo, had married a perfon named Jofeph Cagliostro, and that it is this affinity which has made Jofeph Balfamo affume the title of Count Caglioftro.

"This opinion is fupported by the two public acts of the baptifm and the procuration, &c. &c.

"The age of Caglioftro, mentioned in his memoir, and his having faid that he was in Sicily, Malta, Naples, and Rome, and had traversed the greatest part of Europe, are all circumstances correfponding with the account of Antonio Bracconieri concerning his nephew Jofeph Balfamo.

Matthew Navarrchy, a German, and jeweller at Palermo, faw the portrait of Caglioftro in the hands of Baron Irobia, and fays that he had a long face and a largifh nofe, which agrees with the defcription of Bracconieri. (Signed)

JOSEPH MARIE GUGINO,
Advocate Fifcal.”

Depofition of ANTONIO BRACCONIERI, uncle by the mother's fide of JOSEPH BALSAMO, called CAGLIOSTRO, dated Palermo in Sicily, March 9, 1737.

JOSEPH BALSAMO is the fon of one of my fifters called Felicia, wife of Peter Balfamo, living at Palermo; by whom the has two children only; the one a girl, now a widow, called Mary-Ann Capirammino ; and the other the faid Jofeph, horn the 2d of June 1743; baptized in the Cathedral: his godfather was John Baptift Benoni, a Genoese, established at Palermo.

A few months after the birth of the faid Jofeph, his father died fuddenly; his fifter was then two years of age. They were both H 2 received

Cagliostro. I fubftitute to you for it a Memoir, where he is defended against the imputations laid upon him, and which is very interefting, becaufe it contains a detail of his life, and his detention in the Baftile."

My friend at Paris fent me this Memoir, and I gave it to my brother, requesting him to tranflate it into Italian. I will add, finally, that having remarked in this Memoir, that Count Caglioftro calls his wife Serafina Feliciani, although the name of Balfamo's wife was Lorenza, 1 fuppofe that he has made ufe of the name of one of his aunts, and that of his mother; because the wife of D. Malter Bracconieri, my brother, and uncle to Balfamo, was named Serafina, and her mother Felicia, from which he must have taken by adoption the two names Serafina Feliciani.

So far for the illuftration of truth;-I conclude,

1. That Jofeph Balfamo was born at Palermo, June 2, 1743, and baptifed at the cathedral.

2. That he is the fon of Peter Ballamo. 3. That his mother, a widow, is ftill living, poor, and deaf for fome years past, and that her name is Felicia.

4. That her fifter, widow of the late J. Baptift Capirammino, is still living, and called Mary Ann.

5. The nearest relations of Balfamo at Palermo, are the faid Malter Bracconieri, my brother, and myself, Antony Bracconieri.

Balfamo is of the middle fize, lively eyes, black hair and eye-brows, broad face, brown complexion, with a large and round nofe.

Dona Lorenza, his wife, is handsome, with delicate features, fair complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, broad vifage, a small aquiline nofe, and a middle ftature,

This is the whole which I have depofed, and which I confirm by my fignature. (Signed)

Palermo.

ANTONIO BRACCONIERI.

I

LETTER IX. -, Efq.

To

HAVE received, my dear friend, your kind answer to my letter. And you must know that it was juft fuch an one 2s I withed to receive from you: nay, it was juft fuch an one as I expected that you would write to me. I should have been disappointed if it had been in any other form or fhape of friendship. But understand me, if you pleafe; I should have been difappointed for your fake, and not for my own: for though I am charmed that you should have made me thofe unreferved offers of friendship which are fo gracious in you, I am almost as much pleafed that my Exchequer is in that ftate of fufficiency as not to require them.

I have made my bargain for rebuilding my parfonage, and fettled all arrangements, with all parties concerned, in a manner more to my fatisfaction than I could have expected. I was rather in hafte to fettle this account, that there might be no rifque of leaving my wife and Lydia a dilapidation for their for tune: for I have no reafon to believe that the of would be more kind to them, when friendless and unprotected, than they had been to the husband of the one and the father of the other, who, when he was a poor Curate, had pride enough to defpife their Reverences, and wit enough to make others

I wrote to Hall on account of my difafter; and his anfwer bid me find out a conceit on the occafion, and comfort myself with it. Tully, the Orator, the Politician, the Philofopher, the Moralift, the Conful, &c. &c. &c. adopted, as he cand.dly tells every one who reads his works, this mode of confolation, when he loft his daughter; and if we may believe him, with fuccefs. Now this fame Tully, you must know, was like my father; I mean Mr. Shandy, of Shandy Hall, who was as well pleafed with a misfortune that gave him an opportunity of difplaying his eloquence, as with a bleing that obliged him to hold his tongue. Both thefe great

men were fond of conceits, I mean their own; fo I will tell you a story of a Conceit, not of Cicero's, nor of my father's, but of the Lord of Crazy.

You must know then, that this fame friend of mine, and, I may add, of your's alfo, in a moment of lazy pride, took it into his head that he would have a town chariot, to fave his feet by day, and to carry him to Ranelagh in the evening. For this purpose, after confulting a coachmaker, he had allotted one bundred and forty pornds; and he wrote me word of it. On my arrival in town, about three months after this communication, I found a card of invitation from Lord Spencer

10