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Doc. 199.] LETTER OF SWEDENBORG TO NORDBERG . 559
to be transmitted by you to posterity. I have already made
a circumstantial report of these in Part IV. of my “ Miscella
neous Observations," § 1, which treats of a "New Sexagenary
Calculus, invented by Charles XII, of glorious memory, late
King of Sweden .” Professor Christian Wolf has accordingly
spoken of this in his Geometry, referring to me and directing
the attention of the learned to it. *
When Christopher Polhem , Councillor of Commerce,
went by royal command to Lund, at the close of 1716, and
he asked me to accompany him , it frequently happened after
our arrival that in the King’s presence subjects were dis
cussed which related chiefly to mechanics with its rules,
and the computation of forces, but included also geometry,
arithmetic, and other things belonging to mathematics. This
great King manifested a decided interest and pleasure in in
terrogating us on various subjects, as if he intended to collect
information without our observing it ; yet, now and then,
he would let us perceive, that he was by no means as igno
rant in these matters, as he pretended; which caused us to
be more guarded and careful not to introduce anything of a
merely general character or of minor value, and especially
not to mention a thing as uncertain or unknown, where he
might have brought forward a different view.
The conversation turning upon the analytic and algebra
ic calculus, and also upon the rule of false position (regula
falsi) and the like, we were instructed to produce as in
stances some examples, which depended for their solution
altogether upon the notation, letters, and equations which had
been brought into use. At each instance that was mentioned
His Majesty put his thought and his calculation so much on
a stretch, that in a short time, without the assistance and
application of algebra, he traced out the connection, and said
at once that the example in question might and also must be
solved in such and such a manner. This also agreed so
fully with the computation when made, that no mistake of
* Cfr. Christ. Wolf’s Elementa Matheseos Universa , Tom. I, p. 21, Genevæ,
1743. The passage is as follows: " Charles XII, King of Sweden, according
to Emanuel Swedenborg, has invented a sexagenary calculus, with new
characters and figures, and adding new values.”
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