146 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



A description of the instrument appears for the first time 

 in Neckam's treatise, written toward the end of the i2th 

 century. The nature of this description is such as to make 

 it clear that the writer is not referring to something of 

 his own devising, but, on the contrary, to a contrivance 

 which has then been known to sailors for some indefinite 

 period. So many discoveries concerning the magnet are 

 necessarily involved in it, moreover, as to justify the pre- 

 sumption that it is the product of evolution and of many 

 minds. But, neither in the writings of William Appulus, 

 nor in the Bestiary of Phillippe de Thaun, is there any 

 evidence of similar knowledge; although it is hardly sup- 

 posable that de Thaun, especially, would have failed to 

 mention it somewhere in his long categories, had he pos- 

 sessed any such information. This places the probable 

 time of the appearance of the compass in Europe at about 

 the middle of the I2th century. 



After this description of the compass appeared in an 

 English work, descriptions of it in the literature of other 

 nations followed so rapidly as leave their true chronologi- 

 cal sequence in doubt, and under conditions which not 

 only preclude the idea that the writers got their informa- 

 tion from Neckam, but also that of the transmission of 

 such knowledge seriatim from people to people. This 

 suggests the radiation of the intelligence to the world from 

 some central focal point. Such a point is found in Wisbuy 

 on the Island of Gottland, then a great trading place for 

 sea-faring people. Hither the knowledge may have been 

 brought by the wonder-working Finns. Finally, the 

 ancient sea laws of Wisbuy, dating from the time of the 

 first appearance of the compass before noted, contain a 

 direct provision against tampering with the instrument, 

 and impose a terrible penalty for so doing. 



We may imagine that the lodestone fell at once into its 

 proper place in nautical employment. It belonged to the 

 category of appliances used by the pilots to make their 

 crude observations. It was not especially exposed to the 



