THE FIRST NOTION OF THE TELEGRAPH. 239 



The rise which we have been tracing has been followed 

 mainly through effects which, although of like nature, are 

 commonly defined as magnetic rather than electric; and all 

 roads have led us to the mariner's compass as a ne plus 

 ultra of invention. But now Porta begins an advance 

 movement. The doctrine of sympathies and similitudes 

 is still in force, and it is common belief that nowhere is 

 sympathy stronger or likeness closer than between magnet 

 and magnet. Meanwhile, there has arisen the conception 

 of the sphere of virtue surrounding the lodestone. Con- 

 jectures as to the extent of that sphere have become con- 

 fused with speculations as to the potency of the sympa- 

 thetic influence, and out of all this has grown a curious 

 notion that distance is no bar to the mutual effects of mag- 

 nets, that they will even copy one another's positions, so 

 that, if one magnet point in a certain direction, a second 

 and sympathetic magnet will indicate the same direction, 

 even if they be situated far asunder. A step further and 

 Porta's thought thus leaps ahead : 



" To a friend, that is at a far distance from us, fast shut 

 up in prison, we may relate our minds; which I do not 

 doubt may be done by two Mariner's compasses having the 

 alphabet writ about them." 



So came into the world the fancy which finds its modern 

 embodiment in the great wire cobweb which envelops the 

 earth and brings all people into converse, as it were face to 

 face. Yet this initial notion of the telegraph is of less 

 historical significance than the fact that Porta is here, for 

 the first time, seeking to put the pivoted magnet needle to 

 a new use. In other words, he is trying to invent beyond 

 the compass; and he is taking from it as his instrumentality 

 the pivoted needle moving in and controlled by a surround- 

 ing virtue. A few more years and it will be this same in- 

 strument in another hand, which will usher in electricity 

 as a distinct manifestation of natural force and as the 

 world now knows it. 



