Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/79

VI ] to see whether any one opens up and puts some bread in my hand for it."

His chief income had been his share of the profits from the furnaces and forges left by his own mother, and he had used it generously for the printing of Daedalus and other little technical works, including Polhem's arithmetic, leaving so little for himself, when he lived in Stockholm, that "a single stiver [ha'penny] was precious to me." Now, he thought, if he could only get some money he would go abroad to study mining and metallurgy there. "For he may be regarded as a fool who is a free and independent fellow and has his name in foreign lands, and yet remains here in darkness (and freezes to boot), where the Furies and the Envies and Pluto have their abode and are those who dispose of all rewards."

When twice in 1720 vacancies occurred in the Board of Mines, Swedenborg applied for a full assessorship with salary, listing the many genuine accomplishments which warranted his requests, but each time another was preferred.

Meanwhile his stepmother, Sara Bergia, the Bishop's second wife, died, leaving her considerable property to her stepchildren. She had wanted to leave it all to Emanuel, but this the Bishop had prevented, the poor woman being on her deathbed. Even so, the money which Emanuel acquired after the division of the estate was enough for his simple needs to enable him to go abroad in the spring of 1722. Before he left he carefully informed the Board of Mines that he was leaving in order to learn about foreign mines and metallurgy, and that, if they graciously wished to approve of his plans, he would look for their letter in Amsterdam.

He put "Assessor" after his name.

Except for duly filing the letter, the Board did nothing about it. They hadn't the courage to shed entirely this irregular, dynamic individual with whom the late King had saddled them, but they did not intend to encourage him.

In July, 1722, Swedenborg was back, armed with new expert mining knowledge as well as with prestige of the kind that only "abroad" seems to confer. In the Netherlands and in Leipzig he had published several little books. They had received flattering reviews in important German scientific journals. One book was on his favorite subject of finding the longitude at sea, the others were