212 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



is open to question. Both the printed edition of Pere- 

 grinus' letter, and Taisnier's pirated copy thereof, were 

 extant and available to him; and in both are pictures, 

 which the earlier manuscripts of the Letter did not have. 



Norman's little pamphlet is of especial interest in that 

 it is one of the earliest English books on the magnet, and 

 contains the first poem in the language on the same sub- 

 ject. If Norman was simply an artificer, his skill as a 

 writer is noteworthy; for his preface is a model of style, 

 couched in the quaint rhetoric of his time. Moreover, it 

 is remarkable as showing the bond which still existed be- 

 tween the purely speculative philosophy and experimental 

 science, and the efforts of the latter to free itself there- 

 from. 



U I meane not to use barely tedious Conjectures or im- 

 aginations: but, briefly as I may, to passe it over, ground- 

 ing my Arguments onely uppon experience, reason and 

 demonstration which are the grounds of Artes," is the 

 author's declaration of independence; "albeit, it may be 

 said," he continues, "by the learned in the Mathemat- 

 icalles, as hath beene already written by some, that this is 

 no question or matter for a Mechanician or Mariner to 

 meddle with, no more than is the finding of the Longitude, 

 for that it must bee handled exquisitely by Geometricall 

 demonstration and Arithmeticall Calculation; in which 

 Artes, they would have all Mechanitians and Sea-men to 

 be ignorant, or at least insufficientlie furnished to performe 

 such a matter, alledging against them the latin Proverb 

 of Apelles, ^Ne sutor ultra crepidamS But," he con- 

 cludes, taking heart of grace, "there are, in this land, 

 divers Mechanicians, that in their severall faculties and 

 professions have the use of those Artes at their fingers 

 ends, and can apply them to their severall purposes as 

 effectually and more readily, than those who would most 

 condemne them;" and hence he " woulde with the learned 

 to use modesty in publishing their conceits and not dis- 

 dainfully to condemne men that will search out the 



