OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



OF 



PREFACE. 



IN this work I attempt to show how there came into the 

 world the knowledge of the natural force, which we call 

 electricity ; a force which, within the memory of many 

 now living, has found its most important applications to 

 the needs of mankind, and which exhibits a promise and 

 potency of future benefit, the full extent of which no one 

 can safely venture to predict. 



The research has taken many years, has necessitated the 

 gathering of a large collection of ancient, and now ex- 

 ceedingly scarce, writings, not commonly found even in 

 great libraries, and the sifting of an immense mass of 

 recorded facts and theories, often arising in fields far re- 

 moved from those in which it might naturally be supposed 

 the requisite data would be discovered. The Greek and 

 Roman classics, the results of modern investigation into 

 the old civilizations of Phoenicia, Egypt and even of 

 people of prehistoric epochs, the Norse histories, the an- 

 cient writings of the Chinese and Arabs, the treatises of 

 the Fathers of the Church, the works of mediaeval monks, 

 magicians, cosmographers and navigators, the early poetry 

 of modern France and Italy ; these, mentioned at random, 

 are some of the sources which have been drawn upon, 

 together with the records of the experiments and discoveries 

 of the natural philosophers of all ages. I have made it a 

 rule to note the original founts wherever it seemed to me 

 that such references would be of benefit to others desiring 

 to verify facts or to go over the same ground, and as pro- 

 viding a useful bibliography ; while, at the same time, I 

 have endeavored to avoid a multiplicity of annotations 



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