4550. CONCERNING A BLASPHEMER OF THE WORD AND RELIGION, PERHAPS WOLF. A certain one appeared at the left, and there was silence; then he spoke, and it was perceived he was like Wolf.* After that, he was nearer, and then was diffused from him round about, a sphere, as if he were the God of the universe, which sphere lasted quite a long time. Meantime, he said to certain spirits that he had been the greatest in the earth, and no one so learned as he; but of this they could not be persuaded. He was told that such things as he had been learned in, were only means to wisdom, wherein there is no wisdom unless they be applied; and that to him they had been a means of insanity and of extinguishing with himself truths. Concerning these there was also discourse with him. He approached nearer but lower down, after which that sphere ceased [for then were granted him other spirits]. He then wished to know about everything in the other life, and also the arcana of the internal sense of the Word; and this, apparently, from an inclination in their favor. He also learned some things; but, as soon as he repaired to his own spirits, that is, to the life of his own principles, he ridiculed them. It was said to him that he only wished to know these things for the purpose of making himself great, and of getting gain. It was also shown how the case is with this matter, that, namely, such as he, in the world, appear to be under the influence of zeal, which zeal, however, is spurious, etc. -1752, January 11. * The Wolf here spoken of cannot well be Christian Wolf, the mathematician and Leibnitzian philosophy mentioned in TCR 696, since he did not die till 1754 (see Dr. Tafel's "Documents," vol. i., p. 617), and the present article is dated 11th January, 1752. This Wolf must be, Johan Christoph Wolf, pastor-in-chief of St. Catharine's Church, Hamburg, on whom Swedenborg called, in Hamburg, on the 2nd of August 1736 (see Dr. Tafel's "Documents" vol. ii., p. 82), and who died in 1738, ("Documents," vol. i., p. 690), consequently, thirteen years prior to the date of this article.