As a boy Sweedberg had suffered under the hands of an ignorant, drunken pedagogue. As soon as he got the ear of the King, he informed him of the miserable condition of the schools. The King was vexed that no one had told him the truth before, and proposed to raise the pay of all the teachers in the land. But Swedberg showed him a cheaper and better way,—to issue an order for the government of schools, giving schoolmasters an honorable position, and after three years' good service giving them preference for curacies. Perhaps in Swedberg alone Charles made an exception to the distrust he acquired in all men. Shortly before his death, he said to him, "I have ruled in Sweden three-and-twenty years. When I first became King, I trusted everybody; now I trust nobody." To this Swedberg replied, "That is not right. To trust everybody is foolish, for there are many wicked and silly people." "The world is full of them," interposed Charles. "But to trust nobody," continued Swedberg, "is very bad; for there are many good, honest, and wise men." "Ah, it is now too late," said the King.[1]
From 1690 Swedberg held the appointment of pastor at Vingåker. In 1692 he took up his residence among these simple country people, with whom he greatly desired to be. "The affection and love which existed between the congregation and myself," he said, "can scarcely be described. They sufficiently manifested their good-will towards me by pulling down the old dilapidated parsonage, and building in its stead a new one, with many comfortable rooms, without any expense to myself I received there so many marks of kindness and affection, that scarcely a day passed without their providing me richly with everything necessary for house-keeping. At first this pleased me very much, but it afterwards fairly oppressed and scared me." That the good people saw reason enough for their affection, we may judge from a single specimen of their pastor's kindness. To the widow
- ↑ William White: Emanuel Swedenborg,—His Life and Writings, vol. i. p. 18.
