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596 [Doc. 203 .
SWEDENBORG AS A MAN OF SCIENCE.
D.
SWEDENBORG’S REPLY TO PROFESSOR N. SCHENMARK. *
I received your kind letter containing some remarks on
the “Method of finding the lunar longitude," and I am glad
that you who are so well acquainted with the science of astro
nomy have been pleased to examine it. Among the objections
you make, the parallaxes of latitude seem to be the foremost;
as my thoughts, however, for a long time have been estranged
from this study, I am unable to enter into all the particulars
as I ought to . I, nevertheless, recollect from the time when
I was at work upon it, which is now nearly fifty years ago,
that this method is circumstanced alike with the eclipses lunæ ,
where in the computations, as well as in the dates trans
ferred from the ephemerides for the meridian of each, only
such parallaxes of longitude[ ?] are observed in which there
are also parallaxes of latitude. As is the case with the
eclipses lune, it is also the case with this method; if it was
not so, it would be vain to seek for any method of finding
the longitude by means of the stars and the moon; even
as the research of astronomers for the last two hundred
years, and also at the present time, has been vain. You can
easily see, that if it is possible to obtain the longitude by
means of the moon and the stars, this is the only (mode by
which it can be obtained]. Moreover, this method has the
advantage that it can be used every night when the moon
and the stars are visible ; and as I find that you have in
such matters greater experience than others, I suppose that
if you would make some experiments in accordance with the
rules which I have given, you would find the computations
for the several stars become gradually easier and easier.
Among those who have from times immemorial been engaged
upon this problem, there are some who have not found the
proper method of computation ; and if they do find it, which
of the learned astronomers institute practical ephemerides ?
* The first draught of this letter with parts repeatedly crossed out and
re-written is among the Swedenborg MSS. in the Library of the Academy
of Sciences in Stockholm .
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