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EULOGIUM OF SANDEL. 29
so short duration ? For in 1722, after an absence of a year and a half, he re-
joiced his country by his return.
In the years succeeding he divided his time and his occupations between the
business of the Royal Board of Mines and his studies, till 1733, when he finished
his great work entitled Opera Philosophica et Mineralia.* It was published in 1734
at Dresden and Leipsic; and while it was printing he visited the mines of
Austria and Hungary—a journey which lasted a year. This worlt is in three
volumes, in folio. The title of the first volume is, Principia Rerum Naturahum ;
sive Novorum Tentaminum PhcRnomena Mundi Elementaris Philosophice Explicandi
;
that of the second, Regnum Subterraneum sive Minerale de Ferro ; and that of the
third, Regnum Subterraneum sive Minerale de Cupro et Orichalco.] These volumes,
being solid and learned compositions, ornamented with plates to assist the read-
er to understand the descriptions, &c. in the text, could not but add to the favor-
able opinion that the learned of foreign countries had already conceived of our
Swedenborg.
The Consistory of the University, and the Academy of Sciences, of Upsal, did
themselves the honor of being the first to acknowledge the merit of their illus-
trious countryman, and to show him marks of their esteem. The Consistory, in
1724, had invited him to accept the situation of Professor of the Pure Mathe-
matics, vacant by the death of Nils Celsius ; and this, because, as they expressed
themselves, his acceptance of the office would be to the advantage of the stu-
dents and the ornament of the University. But he declined the honor. The
Academy of Sciences admitted him into the number of its members in 1729.
But the learned abroad now hastened to give him marks of their considera-
tion. The Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg appointed him a Correspond-
ing Member, by a diploma dated Dec. 17th, 1734. Christian Wolff, and other
foreign literati, were eager to establish with him a literary correspondence, and
consulted him on many intricate subjects. The Editors of the Acta Eruditorum
of Leipsic, which gives an account of the works of men of science and literature,
found in those of Swedenborg a rich harvest with which to ornament their col-
lection. Nor has time yet deprived his Opera Philosophica et Mineralia of any of
their value. The authors of the magnificient Description des Arts et Metiers, now
publishing at Paris, have thought so highly of the second part, which treats of
kon and steel, that they have translated it, and inserted it entire in their col-
lection, t
* Philosophical and Mineral Works.
t 1. The Principles of Natural Tilings; or of Neiv Attempts at a Philosophical Expla-
nation of the Ph(Bnomena of the Elementary World.
2. The Subterraneous or Mineral Kingdom in regard to Iron.
3. The Subterraneous or Mineral Kingdom in regard to Copper and Brass.
X The value of this work of our author’s did not fail, also, to obtain notice in Eng-
land. In the translation of Cramer’s Elements of the Art of Assaying Metals, by Dr.
Cromwell Mortimer, Secretary to the Royal Society, it is mentioned by the translator in
the following terms :
" For the sake of such as understand Latin, we must not pass by
that magnificient and laborious work of Emanuel Swedenborgius, entitled, Principia
Rerum Naturalium, fyc. Dresdas et Lipsise, 1734, in three tomes,’in folio : in the second
and third tomes of which he has given the best accounts, not only of the methods and
newest improvements in metallic works in all places beyond the seas, but also of those
in England and our colonies in America, with draughts of the furnaces and instruments
employed. It is to be wished we had extracts of this work in English." P. 13, 2nd
Ed. Lond. llQ4^.~-Editors.
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