PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE
of the moon in his Principia . . . You encourage me to go on with my studies; but I think that I ought rather to be discouraged, as I have such an 'immoderate desire' for them, especially for astronomy and mechanics. I also turn my lodgings to some use, and change them often. At first I was at a watchmaker's, afterward at a cabinetmaker's, and now I am at a mathematical-instrument maker's. From them I learn their trades, which some day will be of use to me. I have recently computed for my own pleasure several useful tables for the latitude of Upsal, and all the solar and lunar eclipses which will take place between 1712 and 1721. . . . In undertaking in astronomy to facilitate the calculation of eclipses, and of the motion of the moon outside that of the syzygies, and also in undertaking to correct the tables so as to agree with the new observations, I shall have enough to do."
A letter of January, 1712, answers various questions on scientific matters referred to him by Benzelius and the Literary Society of Upsal. Among other things our young student wanted to send home some English globes, but when mounted they were very dear as well as difficult
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