Abstract
TO-DAY world-wide celebrations are being held to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the great Swedish man of science and theologian, Emmanuel Swedenborg, who was born in Stockholm on January 29, 1688, and died in London on March 29, 1772. His death took place at 26 Great Bath Street, Clerkenwell, and he was buried in the Swedish Church, Princes Square, Stepney, whence, however, his remains were taken to Sweden in 1908. He was the second child and eldest son of Jasper Swedberg (1653–1735) a preacher, poet and visionary, who became bishop of Skara. From an early age young Swedberg, a name he bore until he was ennobled in 1719, showed unusual talent, and after studying at the University of Uppsala in 1710 came to England. He also visited France and Holland and in 1716, two years after returning home, published his "Daedalus Hyperboreus", a kind of repository of contemporary inventions and experiments. In the same year Charles XII made him assessor in the College of Mines. His writings from that time onwards, published and unpublished, ranged over the whole field of science. In 1721 he wrote his "Prodromus Princi-piorum Rerum Naturalium", in 1722, a work on geology, in 1734 published in three volumes his “Opera Philosophica et Mineralia“, in 1741 his “Economy of the Animal Kingdom“ and in 1744–45 his “Animal Kingdom“, with which his course as a natural philosopher ended. In London in 1749–56 he published his "Heavenly Arcana"and this was followed by some two score of theological works. He himself made no attempt to found a sect, but his followers established "the New Church signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation"and 'Sweden -borgians' are to-day found all over the world.
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Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). Nature 141, 192–193 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141192d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141192d0