"I have little desire to remain here much longer," he says, "for I am wasting most of my time. Still, I have made such progress in music, that I have been able several times to take the place of our organist."
Swedenborg could never see anything done exhibiting ingenuity, or skill, and usefulness, combined, that he did not experience what he described as an "immoderate desire," to master its secret. Writing afterwards from London, he said:
"I also turn my lodgings to some use, and change them often; at first I was at a watchmaker's, and now I am at a mathematical instrument maker's; from them I take their trade, which some day will be of use to me. I have recently computed, for my own pleasure, several useful tables for the latitude at Upsala, and all the solar and lunar eclipses which will take place between 1712 and 1721; I am willing to communicate them if it be desired. In undertaking, in astronomy, to facilitate the calculation of eclipses, and the motion of the moon outside those of the syzygies, and also in undertaking to correct the tables so as to agree with the new observations, I shall have enough to do."
Writing to his brother-in-law in 1712, about some globes that he had been instructed to procure for the Royal Library, he says:
"It is almost impossible to get the paper for the globes; for they are afraid they will be copied. Those that are mounted are, on the other hand, very dear. I have therefore thought of engraving a couple myself, with my own hands,—but only of the ordinary size, ten-twelfths of a Swedish foot,—and after they are done I will send both the drawing and the plates to Sweden. After my return I may perhaps make some of more value. I have already perfected myself so much in the art of engraving that I consider myself capable of it. A specimen of my art I enclose in my father's letter; this, which illustrates some of my inventions, was the first thing I took in hand. At the same time I have learned so much from my landlord, in the art of making brass instruments, that I have manufactured many for my own use. Were I in Sweden, I should not need to apply to
