GILBERT'S DISCOVERIES RECAPITULATED. 313 



coming to rest. His method of magnetizing iron is still in 

 common use, and his counsels as to keeping compass- 

 needles away from other magnets, and of placing all mag- 

 nets, during storage, in definite position with respect to 

 the earth's magnetic meridian are universally followed. 



Finally the magnetic rocks those mythical wanderers 

 from distant Cathay, by way of the Red Sea to the Arctic 

 Ocean which Fracastorio had relegated to the hyper- 

 borean regions, and made them the sole cause of the 

 northing of the needle which Matirolycus had deprived 

 of that high office, and imprisoned on a small northern 

 island with no function save to disturb the compass 

 these, under Gilbert's magic touch, grew to fill the entire 

 globe and lost their identity in the great earth-magnet. 



Briefly recapitulated and freed from his astronomical 

 theories, Gilbert's contribution to physical science, and 

 to the philosophical advancement of mankind, was as fol- 

 lows : 



He was the first: to investigate natural phenomena 

 philosophically and systematically, and by a true induc- 

 tive method, for he interrogated nature by actual experi- 

 ment and from the particulars thus ascertained rose to 

 correct generalizations ; to recognize electricity (as distin- 

 guished from magnetism) as a new natural condition or 

 force, and to study and name it ; to extract the facts and 

 laws of magnetism from the existing mass of speculation, 

 mysteries and delusions, and to reduce them to a science ; 

 to suggest the correlation of gravity and magnetism with 

 other natural forces, and a relationship between gravity, 

 magnetism and electricity ; to formulate a definite concep- 

 tion of the magnetic field of force, and to attempt to show 

 its extent; to suggest the reaction between two fields of 

 force, and mechanical motion of the inducing bodies result- 

 ing therefrom ; to recognize that the earth is a great mag- 

 net, capable of magnetizing iron and iron ore by induction; 

 to determine the magnetic polarity of the earth, and in the 

 directive tendency thereof to reveal the true reason for the 



