114 TH E INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



still was the first journey of Bjarni to America, 1 and as to 

 this the Saga says that ''after three days' sailing, land 

 was out of sight and the fair winds ceased and northern 

 winds with fog blew continually, so that, for many days, 

 they did not know in what direction they were sailing" 

 a statement which completely negatives the presence of 

 the compass, even without the aid of the ensuing descrip- 

 tion of how the ships afterwards sailed in sight of the 

 shore. 



We have now to turn to the Anglo-Saxons. A century 

 and a half after the pirate ships of Hengist had appeared 

 off Thanet, the "strangers from Rome," sent by Gregory 

 the Great, marched into Canterbury with censers burning, 

 the silver cross borne aloft, and chanting the solemn litany 

 of the Church: so returned into England the Latin tongue, 

 and with it Christianity. In the reign of Aelfred came 

 peace, long enough for the establishment of order and the 

 beginning of the teaching of the people. Of all the great 

 things which Aelfred did, the most significant with respect 

 to our present research, are the opening of channels of 

 thought and commerce between England and the people 

 of the north countries, and the great impetus which his 

 larger and better ships must have given to the making of 

 long voyages. 2 Thus a more extended knowledge of the 

 art of navigation and of matters pertaining thereto was 

 gained, better conditions of intercommunication were es- 

 tablished, and the spread of intelligence among the sea- 

 faring nations greatly quickened. Meanwhile, and long 

 before the reign of Aelfred, the magnet was well known 

 in Britain. The Greek and Roman writings with which 

 the clergy were familiar and those of Pliny especially 

 contained, as we have seen, abundant references to it; 

 and, as iron had been freely mined before the Roman occu- 



1 Flateyjarb6k., i., 430. 



2 The Saxon Chronicle and William of Malmesbury, 248. Wright, T. 

 A.: Essay on the State of Literature, etc., under the Anglo-Saxons. 

 London, 1839, 92. 



