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Doc. 39.] SWEDENBORG TO ERICUS BENZELIUS. 207
to my country; for I might not only be charged with negligence,
but also with ingratitude towards our age, if I neglected to
profit by the teaching of so great a man, one such as our
country will never see again. This island, however, has also men
of the greatest experience in this science; but these I have
not yet consulted, because I am not yet sufficiently acquainted
with their language. I study Newton* daily, and am very
anxious to see and hear him. I have provided myself with a
small stock of books for the study of mathematics, and also with
a certain number of instruments, which are both a help and
an ornament in the study of science ; such as, an astronomical
tube, quadrants of several kinds, prisms, microscopes, artificial
scales, and camera obscuræ , by William Hunt, and Thomas
Everard, which I admire and which you too will admire. I
hope that after settling my accounts, I may have sufficient
money left to purchase an air-pump.
Whatever is worthy of being seen in the town, I have
already examined. The magnificent St. Paul’s cathedral was
finished a few days ago in all its parts. In examining the
royal monuments in Westminster abbey, I happened to see
the tomb of Casaubon ; when I was inspired with such a
love for this literary hero, that I kissed his tomb, and dedicated
to his manes, under the marble, the following stanzas:
Marmore cur ornas tumulum , cur carmine et auro ;
Cum tamen hæc pereant, Tuque superstes eris.
At puto sponte sua celebrant Te marmor et aurum ;
Oscula quod marmor prætereuntis amet.
(Why adornest thou the tomb with marble, with song, and
with gold ?
When yet these will perish, and thou wilt survive.
But, methinks, the marble and gold for their own sakes
praise thee;
For the marble loves the kisses of the passers by.)
Or else these :
Urna Tuos cineres, animum sed Numen et Astra,
Scripta Tuum ingenium , Nomen at orbis habet;
* Probably “The Principia", Sir Isaac Newton’s greatest work.
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