Representative Men · Character

Emanuel Swedenborg

A Swedish assessor of mines who hauled ships overland and then, at fifty-four, threw all that force into theology and claimed the heavens opened.

major

Also known as Swedenborg

First appearance: Swedenborg; or, the Mystic

See Emanuel Swedenborg in Swedenborg; or, the Mystic Book page

Free preview opens at this moment — character cards, Character Web, and themes sit beside the text as you read.

To his contemporaries Swedenborg looked like a visionary and an elixir of moonbeams, yet Emerson insists he led the most real life of any man then living. He was a scholar from childhood, a favorite of Charles XII, a working scientist of mines and smelting works — until 1743, when his illumination began and he abandoned science for voluminous theological writing at his own expense. He matters because he represents the mystic type: a man of large calibre whose eccentricity and madness, like Pascal's or Newton's, help us more than balanced mediocre minds.

Continue beside the text

The fuller portrait of Emanuel Swedenborg sits in Reading Lens — open the free preview to keep reading with notes on the page.

See Emanuel Swedenborg in Swedenborg; or, the Mystic

Character Web

18 connections

A slice of how Emanuel Swedenborg sits in the book — open the reader for the full interactive map.

Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Protagonist
Philosophers and Poets
Cultural and Historical Exemplars

+13 more in the full Character Web

Open in reader

Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

This passage is the dramatic climax because it presents the emotional and psychological peak of Emerson’s argu…

Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.

Follow the arc while reading

In the story

Emanuel Swedenborg appears across 6 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

I: Uses of Great Men
Cited as one who saw that things were representative, and as an example of a magnet made man.
Plato; or, the Philosopher
Included as one of the thinkers who owes a debt to Plato.
Plato: New Readings
Mentioned as a Platonist throughout his prose poem 'Conjugal Love,' with his subtlety and moral aim commended.
Swedenborg; or, the Mystic
Central figure of the chapter; presented as the representative mystic with a systematic, visionary mind, but criticized for his later discord and grim cosmology.
V: Shakespeare; or, the Poet
Mentioned as a mourner who grope in graves, representing a half-view that the world still needs to transcend.
Napoleon; or, the Man of the World
His theory that every organ is made of homogeneous particles is used as an analogy to explain how Napoleon represents the masses: if Napoleon is France, it is because the people are little Napoleons.

Chapter companion notes

Spoil-light check-ins for Emanuel Swedenborg unlock in the free preview.

See Emanuel Swedenborg in Swedenborg; or, the Mystic