GILBERT OF COLCHESTER. 331 



GILBERT OF COLCHESTEE. 



THE TEECENTENARY OF ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC SCIENCE. 



By brother POTAMIAN, D.Sc, Lond., 

 professor of physics in manhattan college, new york city. 



AT a period when natural science was taught and studied in the 

 schools of Europe from text-books, we find Gilbert of Colchester 

 proclaiming by example and advocacy the paramount value of experi- 

 ment for the advancement of learning. He was unsparing in his de- 

 nunciation of the superficiality and verbosity of mere bookmen, and had 

 no patience with writers who treated their subjects 'esoterically, rec- 

 onditely and mystically.' For him, the laboratory method was the 

 only one that could secure fruitful results and effectively push back the 

 frontiers of knowledge. 



It is true that men of unusual ability and strong character strove 

 before his time to adjust the claims of authority in matters scientific. 

 While respectful of the teachings of recognized leaders, they were not 

 awed into acquiescence by the customary academical ^magister dixit.' 

 On the contrary, they wanted to test with their eyes in order to judge 

 with reason; believing in the supreme importance of experiment, they 

 sought to acquire a knowledge of nature from nature herself. 



Such were Albert the Great and Friar Bacon. Albert did not bow 

 obsequiously to the authority of Aristotle or any of his Arabian com- 

 mentators; he investigated for himself and became, for his age, a dis- 

 tinguished botanist and physiologist. 



Eoger Bacon, after absorbing the learning of Oxford and Paris, 

 wrote to the reigning Pontiff, Clement IV., urging him to have the 

 works of the Stagyrite burnt in order to stop the propagation of error 

 in the schools. The Franciscan monk of Ilchester has left us in his 

 Opus Majus a lasting memorial of his practical genius. In the section 

 entitled 'Scientia Experimentalis,' he affirms that "Without experiment, 

 nothing can be adequately known. An argument proves theoretically 

 but does not give the certitude necessary to remove all doubt, nor will 

 the mind repose in the clear view of truth, unless it find it by way of 

 experiment." And in his Opus Tertium: "The strongest arguments 

 prove nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. 

 Experimental science is the queen of sciences and the goal of all specu- 

 lation." 



VOL. LIX. 23 



