Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/34

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

about sixty thousand copies of them besides. Through the liberality of Mr. Iungerich, a zealous disciple of Swedenborg, 26,703 copies of the True Christian Religion, and 19,690 copies of the Apocalypse Revealed, both large and costly works, have been furnished gratuitously to all the clergy, of whatever religious denomination, that have expressed a desire to possess them. The American New Church Tract and Publication Society has supplied the clergy gratuitously with 24,944 copies of his work on Heaven and Hell. The same Society also distributes annually over two hundred thousand tracts and kindred publications, designed to present the doctrines of the "New Church" in a popular form. The British and Foreign Swedenborg Society, established in 1810, have distributed by way of donation among colleges, public institutions, the clergy and others, between seven and eight thousand volumes of his writings, in addition to their annual sales, ranging for many years past from five to seven thousand volumes. The annual sales of the tracts of the English tract societies range between forty and fifty thousand a year.

In other countries the demand for "New Church" literature has also been more or less remarkable. Some or all of Swedenborg's works have been published in the Latin, Sanscrit-Hindu, French, Swedish, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, and Welsh languages, and every year is adding to the number made accessible by translation to new classes of readers in every quarter of the globe.

It is an axiom in history that "a religion that does not propagate itself and its sacred books is either dying or dead." If the converse of this be true, that the religion that does propagate itself and its sacred books is alive and flourishing, there is no branch of the Christian Church that exhibits more vitality than that with which the name of Swedenborg has been associated.

It is more than a century since this illustrious Swede commenced the publication of his theological writings. They were all written in the Latin tongue; were published at his own expense, in very limited editions, and the earlier ones without his name. Most of the copies were presented by him to public libraries, or to personal