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TESTIMONY OF PROFESSOR GORRES. 193
from which the first buds [or principles] of things might be seen growing from
the impulsive force which God has implanted in their nature."
After this the Professor endeavors to give an analysis of the work, which, however, is
not quite correct ; he then proceeds :
—
" It may hence be seen that this is a well constructed system of dynamics, lo-
gically derived from the laws of magnetism; and that the manner in which he
proceeds in the development of his principles is the algebraical. * * * The
work, whatever may be still wanting to render it complete, will always be con-
sidered as a beautiful and bold production of the human mind—a production
indicative of profound thought in all its parts, a7id not unworthy of being placed on
the side of Newton’s mathematical Principia of Natural Philosophy.
" Swedenborg had, indeed, not the brilliant genius of the Englishman, who,
with a lucky cast [of the die], always hit upon the right and the true ; instead of
which, however, he had a deeply penetrating sagacity, and a great and clear under-
standing, endowed with an indefatigable pou’er of thought, which never ceased until
he had sounded and explored his subject in all its depths. Swedenborg had
not the skill in managing geometrical formulae, which the founder of the doctrine
of gravition possessed in so high a degree ; but he kept himself entirely free
from the ludicrous fear of deviating from old paths in philosophy, and he rather
endeavored to direct the whole of his efforts to place metaphysics in the pro-
vince of mathematics, and to make the former a visible object of contemplation
(anschauung). In conducting experiments, Swedenborg wa<s diligent, precise,
attentive, and trustworthy ,-
although he may be wanting in that elegance which
makes ISewton’s work on optics a finished work of art [or of scientific skill].
And whilst a greater depth of speculation characterizes the work of the Swede,
that of the Briton is marked by a more widely-extended surface, and is more
richly furnished. Hence it is that the work of the former has been hitherto
passed over in silence in the history of science, without making any great im-
pression; whereas that of Newton, owing to the manifold practical results
which have attended it, has formed an epoch in the history of human knowledge.
The work of Swedenborg, however, contains, no doubt, a rich treasure of enlarged
and profound observations on nature. Many of the ideas unfolded in that work,
are, on the one hand, connected with the oldest philosophy, and have, on the
other, since Swedenborg’s time, been most wonderfully confirmed through the inves-
tigations which Herschel has made into the structure of the heavens, and by the
discovery of the polarization of light, and of the magnetic operations performed
by the galvanic battery. His spiral motion, which extends to every province in
nature, into organic structures and their operations, and even into history, is an
oxtremely appropriate expression by which numerous phenomena can be easily
comprehended ; and it might, in the hand of a person skilled in analysis, be
made as fruitful in physics as the doctrine of gravitation has been for astronomy."
"What the Professor here states respecting E. S. as a natural philosopher—placing him
in the same class with Newton, as an extensive and accurate observer of nature, and
as a profound thinker on all her phenomena—is certainly honorable to his scientific
character, and should induce the world of science to investigate his works. That New-
ton’s great province was mathematics is well known ; and it should also be known that
Swedenborg had the honor of introducing the differential calculus into his country—that
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