ABSTRACT
A different type of man was Emanuel Swedenborg. Scientist, mathematician and mining engineer of the first rank in Europe, he came in middle life to have religious dreams and visions which made of him one of the great mystics of the modern age. Then one comes upon cases that seem to be sui generis, standing by themselves and refusing to go into any one of the pigeonholes that have been devised. To take care of these exceptions there is that most helpful word "Miscellaneous", a capacious repository into which all sorts of odds and ends can be tossed. There was a widespread belief in the ancient world that illnesses could be cured by means of dreams. The sufferer had to go to the temple of the appropriate god, sleep there, and hope for a dream that would tell him what to do for his affliction.
