*I have received your communication, and also the notes concerning the boy who is able to cure diseases. With regard to the boy I cannot now express myself, because here as elsewhere in the country my inspiration in religious matters is in dispute, and this would have some slight bearing on the case in point.

In the last few days the revered House of the Clergy have now reached a conclusion in the case that concerns me personally. Whether the Dean will now be pleased as he has been hitherto, will best be learned in Goteborg. Clergymen and others are likely to give a definite report by letter on that point in the course of next week. There have been quite deplorable slanderers among his followers, whose utterances have fallen down like fireballs from the sky to the ground, and have there been extinguished.

I remain, etc. Emanuel Swedenborg

Stockholm 18 January 1770

* During his stay in Goteborg in July 1765 Swedenborg made friends with Sven Wenngren, the secretary of the prosperous East India Company. This man had served on the city council for a brief period in 1746 and therefore came to be known as Councillor for the rest of his life. Asked by Beyer to investigate further the case of the boy in Skara who had seen visions and had the gift of healing (see Letter to Beyer, October 30, 1769), Wenngren communicated his findings to Swedenborg in January 1770. The original document containing the reply has been lost and therefore the text printed here has been reproduced from the Samlingar for Philantroper, 1787.