Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/56

42 visit, so as to come to know all about every branch of mathematics. He wanted his d:brother to send him a note of whatever he might come across in this connection. And he wished the great Swedish scientist and inventor, Christopher Polhem, would record his inventions; Emanuel would like them for his collection.

This letter had not long been sent before news came of the defeat of Charles XII at Poltava and his internment in Turkey. The situation of Sweden was bad. The Danes were attacking them. Emanuel's father could say, and likely he did say, that the seas were unsafe—the French and English being also at war—and the English journey would have to wait.

But need he wait in flat, dull, discouraging Brunsbo?

Benzelius took pity on him; it was most likely the brother-in-law who suggested that in lieu of foreign travel Emanuel should become the pupil of the great Polhem. At any rate, in the letter of March 6, 1710, Emanuel said, "It is now my chief desire to get a little information of my plan which is being discussed here, to be with Polhem. If so be it that my foreign journey must wait till the spring [of 1711] then I am quite content to be with him for some time, seeing that I can probably reap more advantage there in summer than in winter, and there everything will be so much more lively and pleasant, and my mind in better condition."

He had already met the salient Polhem and they had been attracted to one another. The older man noted that the youth was capable of helping him in his physics experiments, but the scientist refused a request from the Bishop that Emanuel should be apprenticed to him. Eric Benzelius had better luck when he approached Polhem on the same errand.

But—where was Emanuel?