I have read with amazement a letter which purports to relate the interview of the famous Swedenborg with Queen Louisa-Ulrika.  The circumstances therein stated are wholly false; and I hope the writer will excuse me for showing him by the following faithful narration, which can be proved by the testimony of many distinguished persons then present and still living, how completely he has been deceived.

In 1758, shortly after the death of the Prince of Prussia Swedenborg came to court, where he was in the habit of attending regularly.  He had scarcely entered the queen’s presence before she said to him:  “Well, Mr. Assessor, have you seen my brother?” Swedenborg answered no, and the queen rejoined:  “If you do see him, greet him for me.”  In saying this she meant no more than a pleasant jest, and had no thought whatever of asking him for information about her brother.  Eight days later (not twenty-four as stated, nor was the audience a private one), Swedenborg again came to court, but so early that the queen had not left her apartment called the White Room, where she was conversing with her maids-of-honor and other ladies attached to the court.  Swedenborg did not wait until she came forth, but entered the said room and whispered something in her ear.  The queen, overcome with amazement, was taken ill, and it was some time before she recovered herself.  When she did so she said to those about her:  “Only God and my brother knew the thing that he has just spoken of.”  She admitted that it related to her last correspondence with the prince on a subject which was known to them alone.  I cannot explain how Swedenborg came to know the contents of that letter, but I can affirm on my honor, that neither Count H——­ (as the writer of the article states) nor any other person intercepted, or read, the queen’s letters.  The senate allowed her to write to her brother in perfect security, considering the correspondence as of no interest to the State.  It is evident that the author of the said article is ignorant of the character of Count H——.  This honored gentleman, who has done many important services to his country, unites the qualities of a noble heart to gifts of mind, and his great age has not yet weakened these precious possessions.  During his whole administration he added the weight of scrupulous integrity to his enlightened policy and openly declared himself the enemy of all secret intrigues and underhand dealings, which he regarded as unworthy means to attain an end.  Neither did the writer of that article understand the Assessor Swedenborg.  The only weakness of that essentially honest man was a belief in the apparition of spirits; but I knew him for many years, and I can affirm that he was as fully convinced that he met and talked with spirits as I am that I am writing at this moment.  As a citizen and as a friend his integrity was absolute; he abhorred deception and led the most exemplary of lives.  The version which the Chevalier Baylon