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Doc. 4.] 17
EULOGIUM ON SWEDENBORG .
readiness of wit, and showed that he had made a good use
of his time in youth-it is such a work, indeed, as many
could have wished to have written at such an age-but
still, poetry was not his forte, nor was it his business. His
mathematical and physical experiments and remarks, which .
he published under the title of Dedalus Hyperboreus*, in
six separate numbers, he did not begin until 1716. Did this
Dædalus, presented by a new and young author, signify that
perhaps a portion of his remaining works would partake of
the character of a labyrinth ? But we must not measure
his youthful power simply by those products of his mind
which saw the light up to this time; for the press is not
the only witness of learning. Moreover, its testimony is not
always reliable; for an insignificant treatise often bears a
pretentious title. The most trustworthy authors are those who
take the proper time at first in laying a foundation. And this
was done by young Swedberg, not only in the university at
Upsal, but afterwards in the universities of England, Holland,
France, and Germany.
We shall have now to follow him in many long journeys,
undertaken for various purposes and pursuits, and at times in
ways where it is easy to go astray; and in order that in his
society no doubt or uncertainty may arise in your minds, which
often happens when one has not fully examined the character
and disposition of another, picture to yourselves an harmonious
development of memory, understanding, and judgment; imagine
these qualities united with an intense desire of the heart, which
can only be satisfied by the ceaseless endeavour to become pro
foundly learned in philosophy, in almost all parts of mathe
matics, in natural history, physics, chemistry, in anatomy, and
even in theology, and to acquire proficiency in the Oriental and
European languages; keep in mind, also, the power of habit,
which in a certain manner acts in accordance with reason,
certainly in respect to the order of thought; and remember
that our thoughts when too much engaged with, and centred
* All the numbers were published in 4to at Stockholm in the Swedish
language; but the fifth number was also translated into, and printed in,
Latin . - S. SANDELS.
2
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