Page:The Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/72

 discussions and questions; it has also been shown by his Majesty to many persons. Within a short time I intend to send you what is to follow for Dædalus, part v.; when perhaps Drs. Roberg and Bromell will not refuse to honor it with their contributions; they might possibly derive some profit from it.

"We arrived here at Carlscrona a few days ago, intending after three weeks to go to Gottenburg, and afterwards to Trollhätta. Lakes Wener and Hjelmar, and Gullspångelf, in order to examine sites for sluices and locks,—a plan which meets with his Majesty's entire approbation. . . . A thousand kind remembrances to sister Anna. The kid gloves have been purchased."

From these letters of what we may still call Swedenborg's youth, we learn, better than from any description, its exuberance, its energy, its assurance of mathematical power, its fertility of invention, and its strong desire to be employed in practical works for the good of mankind. Mingled with these traits it is pleasant to see the warm, confiding love that overflows to the brother and sister who had cared for and directed his budding manhood, and were still to him as father and mother. The traits are the natural ones of the time of life. What we specially observe with Swedenborg is their vigor and power, eminent by inheritance, and conserved in remarkable degree by a freedom from all ignoble passions and weak indulgence, which we can attribute only to the protection that came with a deep sense of duty to God and to man.