Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/75

VI ] which had the alluring title of Glorious in Youth, Useful in Manhood, Pleasant in Old Age.4

Still, publishing Daedalus was not an occupation. The question came up again of whether he couldn't secure a professorship at Upsala. Writing to Benzelius, Emanuel urged that a Scientific Society would "heal the country . . . both in the establishment of manufactures and in connection with mines, navigation, etc.," and that therefore a seventh of the university income could well be given for this purpose. He said he thought it would be wonderful if the existing professors would donate one seventh of their salary to it; then he could become the first professor of mechanics.

Benzelius was highly alarmed lest the professors get wind of this fine scheme, and Emanuel said he had been joking. Yet, what was he to do? There had been one gleam of hope. Polhem had promised to take him along as his assistant engineer in building a dam and a dry-dock for the Admiralty, but then the irrepressible King went to war again, hammering at the Norwegians this time. In the middle of June, 1716, Emanuel wrote to his brother-in-law that Polhem was not coming after all, that "he thinks all good plans and inventions come to nothing," and "it seems to me," Emanuel groaned, "that Sweden is now laid low . . . when she will probably kick for the last time." With a cautious flicker of his real feeling toward Charles XII, he added, "we have hardly anything better to expect if the Lord permit Him to remain."

Meanwhile he brought out three more numbers of Daedalus and was applying desperately for the secretaryship of Upsala University when things suddenly changed. The King came back to his temporary court at Lund and ordered Polhem to attend him there to see about the new Carlscrona dry-dock, and Emanuel accompanied Polhem.

It was in November, 1716, that "Iron Head" and Emanuel Swedberg first met. The King, always avid for science, was charmed by the four published copies of Daedalus, nicely bound with a special dedication for him, while Emanuel was charmed by the King's interest in mechanics and his penetrating understanding of mathematics.

Polhem lost no time, he struck while "Iron Head" was hot. In a memorial to the King, he recommended Emanuel Swedberg for the