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Doc. 310.] 869
ANALYSIS OF STOCKHOLM MSS.
In chapter VIII, which treats of the quality of the magnetic needle,
and in chapter XX, which discusses electricity, Swedenborg adds the
results ofhis own observations and experiments ; in the former chapter
his additions amount to four, and in the latter to six, pages.
The book, as far as prepared for the press, closes with 34 pages
of tables exhibiting the declination of the magnetic needle, which
are taken from the work of Bruchmann. The text with these tables
fills 299 pages, 4to.
In the remaining parts of the Codex are interesting fragments of
Swedenborg’s induction, which he made on the basis of the preceding
experiments. The headings of this induction are as follows:
1. The object of the present treatise, as stated in the preface.
2. The reason why the needle has the power of deviating, and
of rendering the observation uncertain to the amount of one degree.
3. How the trigonometrical calculation is to be carried on.
4. How the conception may be aided by two eccentric circles.
Afterwards he says in what is intended for the preface : "This is
the golden apple which will be yielded to the victor; he who is able
to solve this problem will carry off the prize. Statement of the reason
why its solution is so difficult, and why it is so easy to go wrong."
Eleven paragraphs on the six succeeding pages are then devoted
to a discussion of the problem, all of which, however, are crossed
out. At the end the author declares, "I am willing to travel over
the whole globe, and explore these declinations, if God grant me
life for it " and he then continues : "But let us hasten to the cal
culation, and compare the results of calculation with those which
are obtained by observation." Now follow ten pages of calculation.
There is no doubt that the contents of this Codex have been
more or less worked up and embodied by Swedenborg in Vol. I of
his Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, published in Leipzig in 1734,
which is titled Principia Rerum Naturalium, sive novorum tenta
minum phenomena mundi elementaris philosophice explicandi (The
first principles of natural things, or of new attempts to explain the
phenomena of the elementary world in a philosophical manner).
"Codices 82 to 85.-De Sulphure, de Sale Communi, de
Secretione Argenti et Cupri, de Vitriolo. "
These Codices were intended to be parts of a large metallurgical
work, of which Swedenborg published a prospectus in 1722 (see
Document 198), but which was never printed. Part V of that work
was to treat of the methods of separating gold and silver from lead,
copper, and other metals, Part XIII of the methods of obtaining
Vitriol, and Part XVI of the methods of obtaining common Salt.
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