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Kierolf then went on to explain something about an interior meaning and spiritual correspondence , etc . Failing entirely to understand what he was talking about , I asked him if he had the work to which he referred . He said he had it somewhere , but he was not sure that he had it with him in his luggage at the hotel ; he would see .
He left the room and after a little returned with the first volume of the Arcana Coelestia , which contained , as I found on examination , Swedenborg ’ s exposition of the verses of which we had been speaking . After running my eyes over the title page and preface and some introductory paragraphs to the 12 th chapter , I read what he proceeded to give as the internal sense of the chapter which arrested my attention . I then read Swedenborg ’ s exposition of what he terms the interior or spiritual meaning of each verse , I might say of almost every word of each verse of the chapter , occupying 45 broad octave pages . I could not make much out of his exegesis , but I was a little disappointed in one respect .
Nothing was further from my thoughts than to suppose that in this book , written over a hundred years ago , of which I had never before seen a copy , and to which , in my not inconsiderable and varied reading of the English classics , I had rarely seen an allusion , I should find anything that could change or in the least modify my opinion of Abram or of the Bible . I read from curiosity merely , expecting to drop the book as soon as I came to something – and I did not in the least doubt soon should – that would be so absurd , or improbable or illogical , as would justify me , without rudeness , in returning the book to my Danish friend with thanks .
Though I understood but imperfectly what I read I did not find what I was looking for ; I found nothing that 1 could point to with confidence and say , “ There , you see , your man Swedenborg must have been either a fool or an impostor , or both .” On the other hand , I did find several curious and striking things which piqued my curiosity for example , his opening comments on the first verse of the chapter showed me that , at least , I was following a thoughtful guide . I had neither heard nor read anything like it before . [ The account then goes on to quote in full n . 1408 of the Arcana , and continues :]
This idea , that the Word had degrees of significance which varied and expanded in exact proportion to the spirituality of a man ’ s life was one which had never crossed my mind before , in a way to distinguish the Bible from Dante or Plato , and it seemed to me as though there might perhaps be something in it – but what ? And how does he know , and what are the proofs ?
Still I could not say , “ This is nonsense ; this is unscriptural ,” though the distinction made between the chapters preceding the 12 th and those following , by which it was claimed that the narratives of the first 11 chapters of the Old Testament , embracing the careers of Adam and Eve , of Cain and Abel , the deluge , the building of the tower of Babel , etc ., “ were not matters of true history ,” had somewhat of a heretical , not to say profane ring . I was , however , so pleased to find that anyone had found a way of retaining his faith in the divine origin of the Bible , without being obliged to accept the account of the creation as history , that I did not feel like having Swedenborg burned as a heretic for that .
In spite of these redeeming features in his writings , however , I did not , in the least , despair of bringing him to the stake before I had done with him . I persuaded myself
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