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896 [Doc. 313.
SWEDENBORG’S WRITINGS.
coronation day, March 17, 1719; but in the first edition the author
signs himself, Em. Swedberg, and in the second Em. Swedenborg.
Concerning the second edition he wrote to Ericus Benzelius on
November 3, as follows: "I have improved the little treatise, which
was published at Upsal, about the high water in primeval times.
and I have added a number of clear proofs, together with an
undeniable demonstration of how stones are moved in a deep ocean;
I have also adduced arguments to show how the northern horizon
was changed, and that it is reasonable to suppose that Sweden in
primeval ages was an island ; this I have submitted to the Censor
of books, so as to publish it anew."
A very thorough review of this work appeared in the Acta
Literaria Suecia for 1720, pp. 5 to 11 ; the whole of this review
appeared in an English translation in the "Intellectual Repository"
for 1819, pp. 455 et seq.
The attention of the learned was in recent years directed to this
little work by Baron Berzelius271 in a paper read before the Scandinavian
Scientific Association in 1842 , where he says (pp. 46 and 47),
"Emanuel Swedenborg, who became famous in many respects, was
the first who called attention in a printed work to a rise of the
Swedish coast. In 1719 he published a little work entitled : ’Respect
ing the great depth of water and the strong tides in the primeval
world; proofs from Sweden.’ In a dedication to the Queen* he
congratulated her on ruling over a land which is constantly enlarged
at the expense of the sea. Among the proofs that a sea in a state
of great commotion at one time swept over Sweden, he quotes the
ridges of our mountains, whose general direction from north to south
he had correctly observed ; and likewise the fact that all the stones
occurring therein are rolled, worn off, and rounded, even those which
weigh from five to ten skeppund. He was acquainted with Snäck
lagren on the Kappellback, near Uddevalla, and several other places
of a similar kind on the western coast of Sweden. He makes a
report of the skeleton of a whale which during his stay at Upsal
was discovered in West Gothland, ten Swedish miles in the country,
and which was left in the care of Professor Roberg,70 that it might
be deposited by him in the anatomical museum of the University,
He describes also the remnants of a wrecked ship which were
excavated far up on the land, as well as some gigantic pots which
he examined and found to have been hollowed out by other loose
stones which were agitated to and fro by water in a state of great
* Berzelius wrongly says "King."
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