WILLIAM GILBERT. 259 



queen called him into her service; on the other, a philoso- 

 pher of overshadowing genius pursuing, despite his ar- 

 duous professional labor, and in the very teeth of the fixed 

 beliefs of the world of his time, the first researches seeking 

 to establish physical science on a philosophic basis, and 

 which revealed and co-ordinated the amber-electricity as a 

 new and distinct phenomenon of nature. 



The archives of the University of Cambridge, of the 

 Royal College of Physicians, and the meagre statements 

 of his epitaph high up on the church wall in his native 

 town, tell us the official honors which Gilbert won. But 

 scores of other good and useful men whose fame never 

 traveled beyond their birthplaces, who adopted liberal 

 professions, rose in them, secured their rewards and de- 

 parted, have left records equally respectable. There is 

 nothing in the writings of his time which reveals to us 

 any clear view of other manifestations of the living force 

 which drove Gilbert to the accomplishment of the great 

 task so controlling, so novel, and yet so foreign to his 

 daily round of toil. True, it was not uncommon, in those 

 days, for the physician to follow some other art or practice 

 more to his fancy than his calling. "For you shall have 

 of them, " records the great Chancellor caustically, 1 "anti- 

 quaries, poets, humanists, statesmen, merchants, divines, 

 and in every of these better seen than in their profession ; 

 and no doubt upon this ground, that they find that medi- 

 ocrity and excellency in their art maketh no difference in 

 profit or reputation towards their fortune; for the weak- 

 ness of patients, and sweetness of life, and nature of hope, 

 maketh men depend upon physicians with all their de- 

 fects." But the official honors which Gilbert received 

 included all which his profession could give; and, as none 

 of the foregoing influences, however much they might 

 have conduced to his material support, imply the Presi- 

 dency of the Royal College of Physicians, and the ex 

 officio status of professional primacy, it may safely be con- 



1 Bacon: Advt. of Learning, b. ii., c. x., 2. 



