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in ultimate atoms which, while occupying space, cannot be further
divided, but move in a vacuum. Swedenborg, while differing from
Descartes as to the shapes and properties of his particles, still agrees
with that philosopher in accepting a series of discrete substantial forms
whose origin is the Infinite, and which move, not in a vacuum, that is,
a great empty space, but whose relationship to one another first
pro-duces space. He would therefore maintain that space is not a vacuum
in which the particles move, but that it is a relationship of the extended
particles. Every student of the history of philosophy and the Sciences
is aware of what confusion and obscurity have prevailed concerning these
prime questions, and that even today both physicists and metaphysicians
accept theories which are in utter disagreement with each other. We
cannot, however, here enter upon a detailed discussion of these profound
questions, but must content ourselves with having defined Swedenborg’s
position and its relation to Descartes and Newton.
If, now, we enquire as to how Swedenborg placed himself with
regard to the problems of the divisibility of matter and its properties,
and endeavor to see his exact position in history, we find that his
earliest statements date from a period when he was intimately associated
■with the Swedish Archimedes, Christopher Polhem, and that whether
Polhem was or was not the author of the Chemical and physical theories
which will now be referred to, Swedenborg in any case developed his
own theories upon a basis which was supplied by Polhem. The evidence
for this is the following.
Polhem, whose mechanical genius and numerous inventions won the
admiration of his age, has left behind him masses of unpublished
matter, preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm, among which
there are many dialogues and discussions which set forth his
concep-tions of mechanics, physics, chemistry and dietetics. Among these
manuscripts is a »Dialogue between Mechanica and Chymia on the
Con-stitution of Nature», 243 which is in the handwriting of Swedenborg, but
in the same package the latter portion of the »Dialogue» exists as a
first draft in the handwriting of Polhem. We know that Swedenborg
for a time acted as Polhem’s amanuensis, and he appears to have done
so in the present instance. The remarkable thing is that several of the
positions of the »Dialogue» which have by students of Swedenborg been
considered to be original with him in his »Precursor» and »Miscellaneous
Observations», are clearly stated in the little work we are discussing.243
Thus we observe that the »Dialogue» men tions the salt particles smaller
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