Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish mystic and scientist, 1768.

Engraving by J F Martin. Emanuel Swedenborg, originally Swedberg (1688-1772), was asesor in the college of mines at Uppsala, Sweden, and wrote on algebra, navigation, astronomy and chemistry. In 1734 he published 'Opera philosophica et mineralia', (Philosophical and Logical Works), which dealt with the creation of the world, and drew on interpretations of metallurgy and metaphysics. Swedenborg had dreams which caused him to believe he could communicate with the spirit world. His followers founded the Church of the New Jerusalem in 1787.