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226 [ Doc. 45 .
SWEDENBORG’S CORRESPONDENCE.
60
acquaintance of the most learned men in this place. I have
called upon, and made the acquaintance of De La Hire,59 who
is now a great astronomer, and who was formerly a well -known
geometrician. I have also been frequently with Warrignon,
who is the greatest geometrican and algebraist in this town,
and perhaps the greatest in Europe. About eight days ago
I called upon Abbé Bignon ,57 and presented your compliments,
on the strength of which I was very favourably received by
him. I submitted to him for examination, and for introduction
into the Society, three discoveries, two of which were in algebra.
In the first invention I showed, that by means of algebraical
analysis a great many useful problems could be solved, which it
was impossible to do by the usual method—this I proved by
more than a hundred examples. In the second invention a new
method of treating algebra is presented, in which the unknown
quantity is obtained, not by an equation, but in a shorter and
more natural way by means ofgeometrical and arithmetical pro
portions. The third invention was about the finding of the terres
trial longitude; under this title there are given the outlines of
a certain most easy, and, if respect is had to the signs ( si
signa spectes), of a true and genuine method of finding the
terrestrial longitude both by land and by sea. These three
discoveries I followed out to some extent; but in my specimens
I only gave a sketch of them, and did not add many proofs.
Abbé Bignon67 at once gave me a letter to Warrignon,so
desiring that he should examine them; in it he mentioned
you, and recommended me to him, because I was a re
lation of Mons. Benzelius, with whom he said he was en
liaison intime ( intimately connected )—these are his own
words. I was to -day for two hours at Warrignon’s, during
which I submitted my papers to him. I intend to have them
printed, that I may communicate them more easily to the
learned ; they will not exceed three sheets. Moreover, there is
another man in England, by the name of Whiston, who has
given out that he has discovered the longitude; for this reason
I wish to make haste with mine. This man has written
on astronomy, but has never before invented anything. Here
in town I avoid conversation with Swedes, and shun all those
by whom I might be in the least interrupted in my studies.
a
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