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Swedenborg
by
His diversity of inventive genius was finally focalized on building sluiceways and canals for the government, and he set Holyoke an example by running the water back and forth in canals and utilizing the power over and over again.
Later he was called upon to break a blockade by transferring ships overland a distance of fourteen miles. This he successfully did by the use of a roller railway, and as a reward for the feat was duly knighted by the King.
The one idea that he worked out in detail and gave to the world, and which the world has not improved upon, is our present decimal system.
As the years passed, Swedenborg became rich. He lived well, but not lavishly. We hear of his having his private carriages and being attended by servants on his travels.
He lectured at various universities, and on account of his close association with royalty, as well as on account of his own high character and strong personality, he was a commanding figure wherever he went. His life was full to the brim.
And we naturally expect that a man of wealth, with all the honors belonging to any one person, should take on a comforting accumulation of adipose, and encyst himself in the conventionalities of church, state and society.
And this was what the man himself saw in store, for at forty-six he wrote a book on science, setting forth his ideas and making accurate prophecies as to what would yet be brought about. He regrets that a multiplicity of duties and failing health forbid his carrying out his plans, and further adds, “As this is probably the last book I shall ever write, I desire here to make known to posterity these thoughts which so far as I know have never been explained before.”
The real fact was that at this time Swedenborg’s career had not really begun, and if he had then died, his fame would not have extended beyond the country of his birth.
* * * * *
Mr. Poultney Bigelow, happening to be in Brighton, England, a few years ago, was entertained at the home of a worthy London broker. The family was prosperous and intelligent, but clung closely to all conventional and churchly lines. As happens often in English homes, the man does most of the thinking and sets metes and bounds to all conversation as well as reading. The mother refers to him as “He,” and the children and servants look up to him and make mental obeisance when he speaks.
“I hear Herbert Spencer lives in Brighton–do you ever see him?” ventured the guest of the hostess, in a vain reaching ’round for a topic of mutual interest. “Spencer–Spencer? Who is Herbert Spencer?” asked the good mother.
But “He” caught the run of the talk and came to the rescue: “Oh, Mother, Spencer is nobody you are interested in–just a writer of infidelic books!”
The next day Bigelow called on Spencer and saw upon his table a copy of “Science and Health,” which some one had sent him. He smiled when the American referred to the book, and in answer to a question said: “It is surely interesting, and I find many pleasing maxims scattered through it. But we can hardly call it scientific, any more than we can call Swedenborg’s ‘Conjugal Love’ scientific.” And the author of “First Principles” showed he had read Mrs. Eddy’s book, for he turned to the chapter on “Marriage,” calling attention to the statement that marriage in its present status is a permitted condition–a matter of expediency–and children will yet be begotten by telepathic correspondence. “The unintelligibility of the book recommends it to many and accounts for its vogue. Swedenborg’s immortality is largely owing to the same reason,” and the man who once loved George Eliot smiled not unkindly, and the conversation drifted to other themes.