1 86 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



That even such remarkable discoveries as these should 

 have remained unknown or have been forgotten for so 

 long a period is easily accounted for by the intellectual 

 condition of the times. Education was restricted to the 

 few, and mainly to members of the religious orders, who, 

 knowing little or nothing concerning maritime matters, 

 would be unlikely to appreciate improvements in the 

 compass or experiments upon it. The contents of the 

 learned treatises of the time are not to be regarded as 

 common knowledge, for manuscripts were costly and rare, 

 and the masses of the people could not read them in the 

 vernacular, much less in L,atin. Frequently all that was 

 known relative to a certain subject was confined to one 

 author or group of authors, or to some one town or region. 

 This sort of isolation constantly occurred in scientific 

 matters not taught in the universities. Intercommuni- 

 cation by letter was difficult, instruction in the schools was 

 mainly by lecture, and the universal reverence for Aristotle 

 caused all novelties which were not accounted for by his 

 teachings to be slightingly considered if not ignored. 

 Undoubtedly, also, Sigerus regarded Peregrinus' informa- 

 tion as a secret confided to his care, and thus general 

 knowledge of it might have been delayed indefinitely. 

 And, finally, when it came to light, people who tested 

 the perpetual motion apparatus and found it a delusion 

 naturally would discredit all other statements. 



Of the later history of this extraordinary man nothing 

 is known: not even the lavish encomiums of Roger Bacon 

 availed to save him from oblivion, for such was the fate 

 of Bacon himself. 1 The few manuscript copies which had 

 been made of the famous Letter lay buried in the monas- 

 teries for nearly three hundred years. 



1 The Opus Mr jus was not published until 1733, nor the Opus Minus 

 and Opus Tertium until 1859, and not a single doctor of the thirteenth 

 and fourteenth centuries mentions Bacon either for blame or praise. 

 Charles, E.: Roger Bacon, sa vie, etc. Paris, 1861, p. 31. 



