BACON AND GILBERT. 321 



years, the vigor and severity of the adverse judgments 

 which he passes upon Gilbert's theories remained un- 

 abated from the beginning of his career to the end. 



But to infer from the foregoing that Bacon's attitude 

 toward Gilbert's achievements is always one of unquali- 

 fied disapproval, is gravely to err. While the instances 

 where he bestows praise are few, there are several in 

 which he tacitly accepts the truth of Gilbert's discover- 

 ies; and if to this be added the further fact that toward one 

 and to us the most important branch of these his real 

 relation is substantially that of a passive disciple, it be- 

 comes evident that any correct conclusion as to the ulti- 

 mate nature of his opinions must be based on careful 

 discrimination between the matters to which he, at differ- 

 ent times, refers. Between these, it is difficult to draw 

 any precise dividing line which will enable us to say that 

 with those on one side he wholly agrees, while he as com- 

 pletely disagrees with those on the other. No two cate- 

 gories can be framed in this respect which will not include 

 serious exceptions. But, viewing all broadly, it will be 

 found that when he acquiesces, it is in favor of Gilbert's 

 direct conclusions from experiment ; while on the other 

 hand he seldom fails to condemn Gilbert's cosmical hypoth- 

 eses and speculations. For Gilbert's chief effort, the 

 attempt to base cosmical theories upon the outcome of 

 magnetic experiment, his censure is without qualification ; 

 to that, every shaft of ridicule and disparagement is di- 

 rected it is vain, false, absurd, wrong in every particular 

 it is a generalization from wholly insufficient data an 

 attempt to build a ship from material not enough to pro- 

 vide the rowing-pins of a boat. 



With this differentiation as a guide, we can now sep- 

 arate Bacon's opinions regarding Gilbert's magnetic and 

 electric discoveries which possess for us the more vital 

 interest from those which he formulates with reference 

 to the broader, universal deductions. 



He agrees with Gilbert in classing the lodestone as 

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