815 



SWEDENBORG, EMANUEL. 



SWEDENBORO, EMANUEL. 



840 



the worthy bishop of tro\virpay/j.oarvvij (in fact, of being a busybody in 

 literature). A very complete list of Swedberg's extensive works may 

 be seen in the 'Catalog. Libr. Impr. Biblioth. Keg. Acad. Upsal.,' 3 toin. 

 4to, Upsal., 1814. 



Many y>ai ticulara of his history are given in Lagerbring's ' Sammari- 

 drag af Swea-Rikes Historia,' 8vo, Stockholm, 1778-80; and a good 

 biography of him is prefixed to Dr. Tafel's ' Swedenborg's Leben,' 

 Tubingen, 1841, pp. 1-43. He left behind him in manuscript an 

 autobiography in 1002 folio sheets, a copy of which he is said to have 

 given to eacli of his children. The title of this document (which is 

 written in Swedish, and still extant in Sweden) may be translated as 

 follows : " Manuscript : The Life of Jesper Swedberg, Bichop of 

 Skara, written in detail by himself, in accordance with the truth ; in 

 order to remind him of the goodness of God and of his wonderful 

 Providence ; and to give to his children and posterity necessary 

 instruction for passing through life happily ; whereto may God grant 

 them his grace :" Brunsbo, Nov. 15, 1728. (Warmholtz ; 'Bibliotheca 

 Sueo-Gothica,' 8vo, Upsal, 1782, et se'qq.) 



SWEDENBORG, EMANUEL, the second child and eldest son of 

 Jesper Swedberg, bishop of Skara, the subject of the preceding article, 

 and of his first wife, Sarah Behm, daughter of Albert Behrn, assessor 

 of the board of mines, was born at Stockholm, on the 29th of January 

 1688. Of his childhood and youth there is no record, except that his 

 mind was early occupied by religious subjects. " From my fourth to 

 my tenth year," says he, in a letter to Dr. Beyer, " my thoughts were 

 constantly engrossed by reflecting on God, salvation, and the spiritual 

 affections of man. From my sixth to my twelfth year, it was my 

 greatest delight to converse with the clergy concerning faith, and I 

 often observed to them that charity or love is the life of faith, and 

 that this vivifying charity is no other than the love of one's 

 neighbour." 



Bishop Swedberg bestowed great care on the education of his son, 

 which he received principally at the University of Upsala. He was 

 uncommonly assiduous in the study of the learned languages, mathe- 

 matics, and natural philosophy. At the age of twenty-two he took 

 his degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and published his first essay 

 the academical dissertation which he had written for the degree. This 

 essay is entited 'L. Annsei Senecse etPub. Syri Mimi, forsan et aliorum 

 selectse sententise, cum annotationibus Erasmi et Grseca Versione Jos. 

 Scaligeri. Quas cum consensu Am pi. Fac. Philos. notis illustrates sub 

 presidio Viri amplissinai Mag. Fabiani Tomer, Philos. Theoret. Prof. 

 Reg. et ord. publico examini modeste submittit Emanuel Swedberg in 

 audit. Gtistav. maj. d. 1. Jun, 1709, Upsalise ; ' reprinted with his 

 Latin poems, by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel, Tubingen, 1841. 



In 1710 Swedberg came to London, just at the time the plague was 

 raging in Sweden, when all Swedish vessels were commanded by pro- 

 clamation to keep strict quarantine. He was persuaded to land 

 (probably in ignorance of the regulation) ; and he has recorded, in his 

 Itinerarium of these travels, that he narrowly escaped being hanged 

 for the offence, He spent some time at Oxford, and lived afterwards 

 for three years abroad, chiefly in Utrecht, Paris, and Greifswalde, 

 returning to Sweden in 1714,' through Stralsund, just as Charles XII. 

 was commencing the siege of that city. His next productions were, a 

 small volume of fables and allegories in Latin prose (' Catnacua Borea, 

 curn heroum et heroidum factis ludens, sive Fabellse Ovidianis similes, 

 sub variis nominibus scriptae, ab E. S., Sueco, Liber i. Gryphiswaldiae,' 

 1715) ('Act. Liter. Sueciae,' vol, i. p. 589), and a collection of Latin 

 poems (' Ludus Heliconius, seu Carmina Miscellanea quse variis in locis 

 cecinit Eman. Swedberg, Skara'). In 1716 Swedberg commmenced his 

 ' Daedalus Hyperboreus,' a periodical record of inventions and experi- 

 ments by Polhem and others, and of mathematical and physical 

 discoveries of his own. This work was published at Upsal in Swedish, 

 in six parts (the fifth part with a Latin version) ; it is said to contain 

 the lucubrations of a scientific society which was instituted by 

 Berzelius among the professors of the university. (' Nov. Act. Reg. 

 Soc. Scient.,' vol. v., Upsal, 1792.) In the course of 1716 Swedberg 

 was invited by Polhem, the great Swedish engineer, to repair with 

 him to Lund to naeet Charles XII., on which occasion he was admitted 

 to much intercourse with the king, who, without solicitation on Swed- 

 berg's part, and while he was yet at the university, appointed him 

 assessor in the Royal Metallic College of Sweden. The diploma con- 

 ferring the appointment, dated at Lund, the 18th of October, also 

 stated " that the kiug had a particular regard to the knowledge 

 possessed by Swedberg in the science of mechanics, and that the royal 

 pleasure was that he should accompany and assist Polhem in con- 

 structing his mechanical works." These works were to consist of the 

 formation of the basin of Carlscrona, and of locks between Lake Wener 

 and Gottenburg, among the rapids and cataracts at TrolhaUa. (' Hist, 

 de Ch. XII. de Nordberg,' torn, iv., app. n. ccxxi.) The king also had 

 the design of uniting his engineers by closer ties, for he recommended 

 Polhem to give his daughter in marriage to Swedberg : the match was 

 however prevented by the lady, who had a more favoured suitor. 



The 'Daedalus Hyperboreus ' was completed in 1718, in which year 

 "Swedberg executed a work of the greatest importance during the 

 memorable siege of Frederickshall, by transporting over mountains 

 and valleys, on rolling machines of his own invention, two galleys, five 

 largo boats, and a sloop, from Stromstadt to Iderfjol, a distance of 

 fourteen miles. Under cover of these vessels the king brought his 



heavy artillery, which it would have been impossible to have conveyed 

 by land, under the very walls of Frederickshall." (Sandel's ' Eulog.') 

 Swedberg's next literary works were, 1. 'The Art of the Rules ' (an 

 Introduction to Algebra, of which a full analysis may be seen in the 

 'Acta Literaria Suecia;,' vol. i., pp. 126 to 134); only a part of this 

 work was published : the manuscript portion, according to Lagerbring, 

 contains the first account given in Sweden of the Differential and 

 Integral Calculus; 2. 'Attempts to find the Longitude of places by 

 means of the Moon.' (A. L. S., vol. i., pp. 27 and 315.) Thr-se 

 treatises were both in Swedish, and were both published at Upsal 

 in 1718. 



In 1719 he was ennobled by Queen Ulrica Elconora under the 

 name of Swedenborg. From this time he took his scat with the 

 nobles of the Equestrian order in the triennial assemblies of the states. 

 His new rank conferred no title beyond the change of name, and be 

 was not, as is commonly supposed, either a count or a baron : he is 

 always spoken of, in his own country, as ' the assessor Swedenborg.' 

 In this year he published three works in Swedish: 1. 'A Proposal 

 for a Decimal Arrangement of Coinage and Measures, to facilitate Cal- 

 culation and suppress Fractions' (Stockholm) ; 2. 'A Treatise on the 

 Motion and Position of the Earth and Planets ' (Skara) ; 3. ' Proofs 

 derived from appearances in Sweden, of the depth of the Sea, and the 

 great Force of the Tides in the earliest ages' (Stockholm). Occasional 

 papers by him appeared in the ' Acta Lit. Suec.' for 1720-21. Two of 

 these have been translated into English. (See ' Acta Germanica,' 

 pp. 66 to 68, and pp. 122 to 124, vol. i., London, 1742.) 



In the spring of 1721 he again went abroad through Denmark to 

 Holland, and published the six following small works at Amsterdam : 

 ]. 'A Specimen of Principles of Natural Philosophy, consisting of 

 New Attempts to Explain the Phenomena of Chemistry and Physics 

 by Geometry' (Prodromus Principiorurn Rerum Naturalium, sive 

 novorum tentaminum Chetniam et Physicam experimentalem Geo- 

 metrice explicaudi) ; 2, ' New Observations and Discoveries respecting 

 Iron and Fire, with a new mode of constructing Stoves ' (Nova Obser- 

 vata et Inventa circa ferrum et ignem ; una cum nova camini inven- 

 tione) ; 3, ' A new method of finding the Longitude of Places, on 

 Land or at Sea, by Lunar Observations ' (Methodus nova inveniendi 

 Longitudines Locorum, Terra Marique, Ope Lunae); 4, 'A mode 01 

 constructing Docks ' (Modus construendi Receptacula Navalia) ; 5, 

 ' A new way of making Dykes ' (Nova Constructio Aggeris Aquatici) ; 

 6, ' A mechanical method for Testing the Powers of Vessels ' (Modus 

 Mechanice explorandi Virtutes Navigiorum). From Amsterdam he 

 went to Aix-la-Chapelle, Liege, and Cologne, and visited the mines 

 and smelting-works near those places. He arrived at Leipzig in 1722, 

 and there published in three parts, ' Miscellaneous Observations on 

 Natural Objects, particularly Minerals, Fire, and Mountain-strata ' 

 (Miscellanea Observata circa Res Naturales, prsesertim mineralia, 

 ignem et montium strata). At Hamburg, during the same year, he 

 published a fourth part, ' On Miiierals, Iron, and the Stalactites in 

 Baumann's Cavern' (Precipue circa mineralia, ferrum, et stalactitas in 

 Cavernis Baumannianis). ('Act. Eruditor. Lipsiens.,' 1723, p. 9697.) 

 This work, like those which precede it, shows a rare power both of 

 accumulating facts and applying principles. We learn from it that 

 Swedenborg, among his other employments, was officially appointed 

 to visit, and to propose for selection the parts of the Swedish coast 

 which were best fitted for the preparation of salt ; on which subject 

 the ' Miscellaneous Observations ' contain an admirable business-like 

 memoir. The fourth part gives the substance of several conversations 

 between Charles XII. and Swedenborg, in which the king proposed a 

 new ' sexagenarian calculus.' Swedenborg made the last-mentioned 

 tour principally to gain a practical knowledge of mining. At Blanken- 

 burg he experienced great kindness from Louis Rudolph, duke of 

 Brunswick, who defrayed the whole expense of his journey, and at his 

 departure presented him with a golden medallion and a weighty silver 

 goblet. After being abroad a year and three months, he returned 

 home, and in the course of 1722 he published anonymously, at Stock- 

 holm, a work entitled ' Om Swenska Myntets Fornedring och Forhoj- 

 uing ' (' On the Depreciation and Rise of the Swedish Currency '), 

 ('Cat. Bibl. Upsal,' Upsal, 1814); and at the end of the same year he 

 entered, for the first time, on the actual duties of the assessorship, 

 the functions of which he had been unwilling to exercise before he had 

 perfected his knowledge of metallurgy. For the next ten years he 

 divided his time between the business of the Royal Board of Mines 

 and his studies. In 1724 he was invited by the consistory of the uni- 

 versity of Upsala to accept the professorship of pure mathematics, 

 vacant by the death of Nils Celsius, because "his acceptance of the 

 chair would be for the advantage of the students, and the ornament 

 of the university; " but he declined the honour. In 1729 he was 

 admitted a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Upsala. 

 In 1733 he again travelled into Germany. It seems from bis post- 

 humous 'Itinerarium' (edited by Tafel, Tubingen, 1840), that he 

 visited Berlin, Dresden, Prague, and Carlsbad, and, arriving at Leipzig 

 at the end of the year, put to press a great work he had just com- 

 pleted. During the printing of this work he spent twelve months in 

 visiting the Austrian and Hungarian mines. 



Swedenborg's ' Opera Philosophica ct Mineralia ' were published in 

 1734, in 3 vols. folio, at Dresden and Leipzig ; his patron, the Duke 

 of Brunswick, at whose court he was a visitor, defrayed the cost of 



