STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD
for the post of Assay Master, and was constant in attendance till the middle of January, 1736, when he requested the Royal leave to attend the burial of his father in West Gothland. But these practical duties of the College of Mines could not long satisfy his aspirations for the advancement of human knowledge, and in the following May he again petitioned King Frederic to grant him three or four years' leave of absence, on half pay, for the elaboration and publishing of works he had undertaken requiring "long and deep thought and a mind unencumbered with cares and troubles." This request was referred by the King to the Royal College and received its approval, whereupon Swedenborg thanked the College, and especially for the continuance of half his salary "in consideration partly of the well-intentioned and useful design I have in view, and partly because I have been an Assessor in the Royal College for twenty years. It will both cheer me on and be an assistance in my proposed undertaking, which will be sufficiently expensive."
On the 3d of July he took his leave of their Majesties, who were very gracious, and on the 10th of the Royal College, to which he did not
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