GILBERT AND PEREGRINUS. 279 



his terrella, as he thought, of the earth, as the earth and 

 in the shape of the earth; judged of the whole from the 

 part, and thus attained the conclusion which Peregrinus 

 did not reach namely, that the globe on which we live 

 is a huge magnet. 



But the details of the initial experiments on the terrella, 

 its manufacture on the lathe as lapidaries turn and polish 

 crystals, the modes of finding its poles and magnetic me- 

 ridians by short bits of iron, the greater attraction of the 

 poles for these pieces, their erection at the polar points, 

 their varying inclinations when supported in different parts 

 of the field, the practical demonstration of the laws of mag- 

 netic attraction 'and repulsion, and the distinguishing of 

 the magnetic poles, Gilbert takes directly from the famous 

 Letter of Peregrinus, at times almost verbatim. He even 

 copies figurative expressions which Peregrinus uses, such 

 as the comparison of the magnet in its floating bowl to a 

 sailor in a boat. The fact that Gilbert makes no acknowl- 

 edgment of Peregrinus' achievements in all these vital 

 matters some may find explicable by the disregard for the 

 amenities which characterizes his entire work. Others 

 again will find it difficult to reconcile his appropria- 

 tion of Peregrinus 7 discoveries with his immediately fol- 

 lowing statement that the whole philosophy of the mag- 

 net is ill-cultivated even in its elementary principles. 



. It is true that this systematic habit of not acknowledg- 

 ing the effective work of his predecessors makes it no easy 

 task to distinguish with certainty the true extent of Gil- 

 bert's accomplishments, even in the light of the review of 

 past progress which has already been presented. He 

 rarely mentions an earlier writer except to dispute conclu- 

 sions, which may perhaps be due to the influence exerted 

 upon him by Aristotle, who, as Bacon repeatedly re- 

 marks, "as though he had been of the race of the Otto- 

 mans, thought he could not reign except the first thing he 

 did he killed all his brethren." 1 



. of Learning, Book 2., c. viii., 5. "And herein I cannot a little 



