350 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tinned direction of a body towards the poles. To the same cause he 

 attributes the magnetization of iron crosses fixed to steeples, towers, etc. 

 It must be evident from this brief analysis of De Magnete, 



1. That Gilbert was acquainted with all the facts in magnetism 

 known in his days ; 



2. That he added profusely to the number; 



3. That he coordinated these facts and deduced the laws which 

 govern them; and 



■ 4. That he was the first to offer a scientific explanation of the be- 

 havior of the compass and the dip needle, as well as of numerous other 

 phenomena, correctly attributed by him to the magnetic state of our 

 globe. 



Such were some of the 'rowing pins,' as Chancellor Bacon ironically 

 calls them, with which Gilbert built up one of the greatest monuments 

 ever erected by the genius of one man. Had Gilbert done nothing else 

 than propound and establish on the solid basis of observation and ex- 

 periment his theory that the earth is a great magnet, his name would 

 ever li^e in the annals of science, surrounded with a halo that even the 

 unjust strictures of Bacon could not dim; but when we consider his 

 spirited advocacy of research at the end of the sixteenth century, and 

 the cardinal advances he achieved in the interpretation of two great 

 branches of knowledge, we can have no hesitation in considering him 

 with Poggendorff, 'the Galileo of Magnetism,' and with Priestley, 'the 

 Founder of Modern Electricity.' 



Were we asked to write an inscription for his statue, we should write 

 the simple words: 



Gilbert, the Columbus of the Electrical World. 



