o much reflection and
silent meditation, into a man with perfect confidence in his own mission
and in his ultimate victory.

CHAPTER XII

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

While the Swedenborgians, as a religious sect, are not numerically
sufficient to be reckoned among the world's great religions, it is yet a
fact that the followers of the great Swedish seer and scientist hold a
prominent place among the innumerable sects which the beginning of this
century finds flourishing.

Swedenborg was born in Stockholm, in January, 1688, and lived to the
advanced age of eighty-four years.

Swedenborg was well born; he was the son of a bishop of the Swedish church,
and during his lifetime held many positions of honor. He was a friend and
adviser of the king, and his expert knowledge of mining engineering gave
him a place among the scientists of his age.

He was a voluminous writer, his early work being confined to the phases of
materialistic science, notably on mines and metals, and later upon man, in
his physiological aspect.

His "De Cerebro and Psychologia Rationales," published in his fifty-seventh
year, showed a different Swedenborg from the one to whom his colleagues
were accustomed to refer with much respect.

This book dealt with man, not as a product of brute creation, but as an
evolutionary creature, having at least a possibility of divine origin. It
is, however, his "Arcana Coelestia" upon which "The Church of the New
Jerusalem" is founded; and it is this work which caused Swedenborg's
friends and colleagues to determine that he had become insane. It is, in
fact, only within very recent years, that the so-called scientific world
has deigned to regard Swedenborg's revelations with any degree of serious
and respectful attention.

Swedenborg's Illumination was not, like that of so many others, who have
founded a new religion, a sudden influx of spiritual consciousness, but
rather a gradual leading up to the inevitable goal, by virtue of serious
thought, deep study, and a high order of mentality.

But that the Swedish seer received, in full measure, the blessing of cosmic
consciousness, is beyond doubt.

Swedenborg's extremely simple habits of life; his freedom from any desire
for display, or for those social advantages into which he was born; his
gentleness and unassuming manner, of which much is written by his
followers, all point to him as one upon whom the blessing might readily
descend. Swedenborg was a vegeta