202 THE INTELLECTUAL RISK IN ELECTRICITY. 



pilots before Columbus to have regarded any deviation of 

 the needle as due to faulty construction or faulty magneti- 

 zation, than to have assumed that it varied because of some 

 external influence. 



Because Columbus laid most stress upon his observation 

 of the variation of the variation and of a line of no varia- 

 tion, is no more reason for disputing his right to be known 

 as the discoverer of the variation itself, than is his notion 

 that he had visited a part of India one for denying him 

 his title as the discoverer of the New World. Mankind 

 has long since decided that the forgotten voyages of the 

 9th century Icelanders detract nothing from his renown : 

 equally immaterial is the hidden knowledge of the Chi- 

 nese. The planets moved in accordance with definite law 

 before the eyes of millions before Newton or Kepler lived; 

 but the originality of the conceptions of these men is un- 

 impaired. Moving planets and moving compass needles 

 merely produced images on retinas : it was inconsequent 

 whether of men or of sea-gulls. But to discover meant the 

 establishment of connection between retina and a think- 

 ing, intelligent brain, and the application of the result of 

 thought to the world's benefit. That is what Newton and 

 Kepler did and Columbus did likewise. He was the first 

 discoverer of the New World who made his discovery 

 known to the Old World. He was the first discoverer of 

 the variation of the compass needle who made that fact 

 known to the rest of mankind. And the true discoverer 

 is not only he who has eyes to see and ears to hear, but 

 he who has a tongue and uses it to tell to others what his 

 keener senses have told to him. 



The variation of the compass needle having been dis- 

 covered, the importance of it was soon perceived by the 

 sailors, for such a vagary of the needle would lead ships 

 far astray if not known and allowed for in laying the 

 course. But the philosophers, who cared little about nau- 



