“A man carried a monkey about for a shew, & because he was a little wiser than the monkey, grew vain, and conciev’d himself as much wiser than seven men. It is so with Swedenborg; he shews the folly of churches & exposes hypocrites, till he imagines that all are religious. & himself the single One on earth that ever broke a net.”

— The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plates 21-22. Copy A: Plate 21; Plate 22. Text only.

“What must our Clergy be who Allow Bacon to be Either Wise or even of Common Capacity I cannot”

— Annotations to Bacon’s Essays Moral, Economical and Political