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Doc. 205.] 41
SWEDENBORG’S TRAVELS IN 1733.
house was opened without anybody being there to do it. In
optics they had camera obscuræ of various kinds, the glasses
presenting in perspective with barking dogs the most varied
scenes of real life ; further some caustic mirrors, and likewise
a parabolical metallic mirror of copper gilt. There were
Chinese letters and books ; their astronomical figures and
artistic paintings ; and a letter written by their emperor; be
sides many other things, the sole purpose of which is to im
pose upon those who are simple. They have also a splendid
astronomical tower. I entered, too, their superb library, which
consisted, however, only of old books and old manuscripts ,
dating from the fathers and Euclid[? ] and others. The place
is richly decorated, but the books are old, and mostly of the
schoolmen. They showed me a Bible translated from the
Latin into German by Rüdiger, and published in Nuremberg
in 1483, or thirty-four years before Luther’s version. After
wards I saw the pictures with emblems, which they expose in
stead of a disputation, so that they may be defended publicly.
They have a most elegant painting, which is to be affixed
to the walls. They are very busy ; besides the servants, there
are two hundred in that building, and in another there are
about two hundred more. They accept only such as are
wealthy and talented.
I walked thence to the volcano, or to the place where I
was told a few months ago the fire burst out. It is simply an
immense congeries of dung, earth, dirt, clay, offal, wood , stalks,
and sticks, which had been collected for nearly a thousand
years, and in time had assumed the dimensions of an enormous
heap. This congeries abounds with saltpetre and sulphur, and
if water is added to it, it catches fire. This may appear also
from the consideration, that near that mountain or heap a house
has been built, where saltpetre is boiled out of that earth which
seems most fit for the purpose. This house was built many
years ago, and much of the soil has been used up ; so that
we have proof positive of its abounding in saltpetre and
sulphur.
I made investigations also into the orders of monks ; there
are chiefly four. The Franciscans have a grey robe of the
coarsest kind, tied with a rope, the Benedictines are clothed
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