Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Stockholm, on the 29th Jan., 1688. The year is a memorable one, as being that in which outraged England drove the faithless Stuarts from the throne. His father’s name was Jesper Swedberg, and his mother’s, Sarah Behm; both descended from families of worth and usefulness in Sweden. His father, at the time of his birth, was chaplain to a regiment of cavalry. After passing through several offices, one of which was a professorship of theology in the University of Upsal, Jesper Swedberg was, in the year 1719, elevated to the bishoprick of Skara in West Gothland. His character stood high in Sweden. Simple, patriotic, and honest, he was, without being brilliant, a learned and industrious man. He wrote much, and published occasionally, as the following extract from his diary proves: “I can scarcely believe that anybody in Sweden has written so much as I have done; since, I think, ten carts could scarcely carry away what I have written and printed at my own expense, and yet there is much, yea nearly as much, not printed.” Of the professions of his sons, he wisely remarks; “I have kept my sons to that profession to which God has given them inclination and liking: I have not brought up one to the clerical office, although many parents do this inconsiderately, and in a manner not justifiable, by which the Christian Church and the clerical order suffer not a little, and are brought into contempt.” Writing in his diary forty years after Emanuel’s birth, he says: “Emanuel, my son’s name, signifies ‘God with us,’ a name which should constantly remind him of the nearness of God, and of that interior, holy, and mysterious connection, in which, through faith, we stand with our good and gracious God. And blessed be the Lord’s name! God has, to this hour, been with him; and may God be further with him, until he is eternally united with Him in his kingdom.”