OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



OF 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE intellectual rise in electricity is worthy of histori- 

 cal investigation, not merely because of the material 

 results, actual and potential, which have come from it, 

 but because it shows clearly anew the marvellous power 

 of the human mind as an instrument of discovery, capable 

 of correcting its own errors. Beginning with a single 

 phenomenon, afterwards including effects all, for long 

 periods, seemingly fortuitous and uncorrelated, this rise 

 has involved questions of an interest second only to that 

 which mankind has yielded to the great issues of life and 

 eternity; questions which challenged the human under- 

 standing and compelled it to measure itself against them. 

 From one fact it came to include many facts, from one 

 conception grew many conceptions, coincidently with the 

 increase in human learning, the broadening of human 

 thought, and the development of human intelligence. 



The initial idea the germ found its lodgment in 

 some brain existing at an epoch far beyond the limits of 

 history. The discovery of amber in the ancient lake 

 dwellings of Europe suggests the possible perception of it 

 by pre-historic man. The accidental rubbing against the 

 skins with which he clothed himself may have caused an 

 attraction by the resin, thus electrified, of the light fur in 

 sufficiently marked degree to arrest his attention. Be- 

 tween such a mere observation of the fact, however, and 

 the making of any deduction from it, vast periods may 

 have elapsed; but there came a time at last, when the 

 amber was looked upon as a strange inanimate substance 

 which could influence or even draw to itself other things; 

 and this by its own apparent capacity, and not through 



(12) 



