SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME
Swedenborg, and a disused portion still bears the name of Swedenborg,
In January, 1718, Swedenborg writes to Benzelius declining his offer to seek for him the then vacated professorship of Astronomy at Upsal, for the reason that he had now full employment in more practical matters and in the study of mechanics. He concludes, "I have five little treatises which I desire to lay before my friends; one, which I have finished to-day, is on the round particles, in which Dr. Roberg will probably be interested, for he is well skilled in all that concerns these least things, and is delighted with such subjects."
In these extracts from Swedenborg's letters, of which we have more at this period of his life than at any other, we copy without reserve whatever seems to throw any light on his character and on the nature of his pursuits. The entire collection is to be found in Tafel's Documents, in which it makes one hundred and seventy octavo pages. During the publication of the Dædalus, from 1716 to 1718, Swedenborg published little else. A small tract in Swedish on the tinware of Stiernsund, 1717, is attributed to him; and it is probable that
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