174 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



as we have seen, was so generally prevalent. The magnet, 

 he thought, attracted the magnet more powerfully than 

 the iron because the magnet was like the magnet; and he 

 uses the same illustration given by Neckam the attrac- 

 tion of scammony for bile. 



The more one reads of this remarkable letter, the more 

 evident becomes the conflict in the mind of Peregrinus 

 between the conclusions drawn from experiment, and 

 those deduced from existing theories and speculations. It 

 is also curious to note how much further he had extricated 

 himself from the prevailing atmosphere of delusions and 

 false conceptions than Neckam had done seventy years 

 earlier. In Neckam's treatise, the wholly speculative 

 ideas predominate; in that of Peregrinus, those which rest 

 purely upon experiments obviously control. Neckam en- 

 deavors to reconcile the teachings of experiment with the 

 prevailing theories, evidently through some sort of impres- 

 sion that he must do so, even if the results of investigation 

 are out of harmony with those evolved from speculation. 

 Peregrinus, on the contrary, does just the reverse, and 

 tries not only to harmonize his experimental conclusions 

 with one another, but to adapt the existing theories to 

 them. 



Yet, in one instance, he seems to fail completely, and 

 to allow theory to lead him entirely astray. It has al- 

 ready been stated that in giving names to the poles of the 

 magnet, Peregrinus calls that pole " north," which points 

 to the north when the needle is supported so as to be 

 freely moved. He says, " You will infer what part of the 

 iron is attracted to each part of the heavens from knowing 

 that the part of the iron which has touched the southern 

 part of the magnet is turned to the northern part of the 

 sky. The contrary will happen with respect to that end 

 of the iron which has touched the north part of the stone, 

 namely, it will direct itself towards the south." It is 

 difficult to see how he could have made this error in the 

 face of his experiments; for, as a matter of course, the end 



