"A Memorable Fancy, Plates 21-22" lyrics

I have always found that Angels have the vanity to speak of themselves as the only wise
This they do with a confident insolence sprouting from systematic reasoning

Thus Swedenborg boasts that what he writes is new
Tho' it is only the Contents or Index of already publish'd books

A man carried a monkey about for a shew, and 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 and exposes hypocrites
Till he imagines that all are religious, and himself the single one on earth that ever broke a net

Now hear a plain fact: Swedenborg has not written one new truth
Now hear another: he has written all the old falshoods

And now hear the reason. He conversed with Angels who are all religious
And conversed not with Devils who all hate religion
For he was incapable thro' his conceited notions

Thus Swedenborgs writings are a recapitulation of all superficial, opinions
And an analysis of the more sublime, but no further

Have now another plain fact:
Any man of mechanical talents may from the writings of Paracelsus or Jacob Behmen
Produce ten thousand volumes of equal value with Swedenborgs
And from those of Dante or Shakespear, an infinite number

But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows better than his master
For he only holds a candle in sunshine