EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
also I had discussions on algebra with him. He is a good mathematician and a great algebraist. ... In Leyden I learned glass-grinding [for telescopes], and I have now all the instruments and utensils belonging to it. . . . You may rest assured that I entertain the greatest friendship and veneration for you; I hope therefore that you will not be displeased with me on account of my silence and my delay in writing letters, if you hear that I am always intent on my studies, so that sometimes I omit more important matters."
Swedenborg's stay in Paris seems to have been less than a year, and here seems to end his aspiration for eminence in pure mathematics. For whatever reason, from this time he began to devote his attention to mechanical and practical investigations. Going from Paris by way of Hamburg to Rostock, in the north of Mecklenburg, he writes from there to Benzelius, Sept. 8, 1714—
"I am very glad that I have come to a place where I have time and leisure to gather up all my works and thoughts, which have hitherto been without any order and are scattered here and there upon scraps of paper. I have always
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