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Doc. 40.] SWEDENBORG TO ERICUS BENZELIUS. 211
correct theory respecting the motion of the moon and of its ap
pulse to the fixed stars; and with its help there may be found a
true longitude at sea ; for he has found that the motion of the
moon has as yet been by no means well determined, and that all
theoretical luna tables are very imperfect, and that the same
errors or deviations which are noticed in an earlier period of
eighteen years and eleven days, occur again afterwards.
Newton has laid a good foundation for correcting the
irregularities of the moon in his Principia ; he has however
not yet published the tables, but simply the theory ; he has
also corrected in it the precession of the equinoxes, and the
periods of the tides.
Will you please ask Prof. Elfvius54 for the meridian or the
longitude of Upsal ; I know that he succeeded at one time in
getting it very accurately by means of a lunar eclipse; I can
make some use of it.
You encourage me to go on with my studies; but I think,
that I ought rather to be discouraged, as I have such an
“immoderate desire” * for them, especially for astronomy and
mechanics. I also turn my lodgings to some use, and change
them often ; at first I was at a watchmaker’s, afterwards at
a cabinetmaker’s, and now I am at a mathematical instrument
maker’s; from them I steal their trades, which some day
will be of use to me. I bave recently computed for my own
pleasure several useful tables for the latitude of Upsal
, and all
the solar and lunar eclipses which will take place between
1712 and 1721 ; I am willing to communicate them, if it be
desired. In undertaking in astronomy to facilitate the calcu .
lation of eclipses, and of the motion of the moon outside
those of the syzygies, and also in undertaking to correct the
tables so as to agree with the new observations, I shall have
enough to do.
Would you like to have for the library the Philosophical
Transactions, that is, everything theRoyalSociety has deliberated
upon and discovered since its beginning in 1666 ; together with
a Collection of some Natural Phenomena, published in 1707 ?
If so, I think I can procure them for you, although they are
* These two words Swedenborg wrote in the English language.
14*
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