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Doc. 85.] 309
SWEDENBORG TO BENZELIUS.
spun round
either out or in by the least force; if, now, this ball should
be ound very rapidly - especially under water — then
the centrifugal force would be increased to such a degree,
that the ball would run far out on the arm , away from its centre ;
but if the motion should decrease, the ball would be drawn
inward. Exactly so is it with the planets ; if the first moving
cause is taken out of one, it approaches nearer to its centre;
but if it is increased, it is thrown far out; or what is the
same thing, the slower the revolution the nearer its approach
to the sun, which theory I also discuss in the above -named
treatise. That this, however, should take place within two or
three years, I cannot yet get into my head; although even
our atmosphere itself seems to indicate a change in the
temperature in respect to summer and winter, and also in
respect to the unusual north winds we now have. With regard
to the nature of motion, if an examination is made of the
degree in which it either increases or decreases, it appears
that towards the end motion decreases more in one minute
than before in 20 ; for instance, if anything be whirled around,
the revolution towards the end diminishes more in one moment,
than it did before in twenty; yet this cannot apply to our
planet. I should therefore like very much to get some
further particulars about this matter.
During the summer I took the necessary leisure to commit
some things to paper, which I trust will be my last; as
speculations and arts like these are left to starve in Sweden,
where they are looked upon by a set of political blockheads
as scholastic matters, which must remain in the background,
while their own supposed refined ideas and their intrigues
occupy the foreground.
What I have in hand consist, first, of a minute de
scription of our Swedish blasting-furnaces; secondly, a theory
or an investigation into the nature of fire and stoves,
where I have collected everything I could gather from black
smiths, charcoal-burners, roasters of ore, superintendents of
iron -furnaces, &c., and upon this the theory is based.* I hope
* Swedenborg’s theory concerning fire was published byhim inAmsterdam,
in 1721, under the title: Nova Observata et Inventa circa Ferrum et Ignem ,
et præcipue circa naturam Ignis elementarem , una cum nova Camini in
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