BACON ON THE ELECTRICS. 325 



and partly in Latin, which it has been assumed, not infre- 

 quently, sets forth a series of electrical discoveries and ex- 

 periments made by Bacon himself. The entire production, 

 however, is merely an epitome of the famous second chap- 

 ter in Gilbert's De Magnete, wherein the electrical mat- 

 ters are contained; no material fact being wanting, and 

 the various facts being arranged in nearly the same order 

 in which Gilbert presents them. 



It is not an unreasonable inference that Bacon prepared 

 this synopsis merely for convenience, intending at some 

 future time to take up the subject of electrics for study; 

 and this supposition gains support from his curt dismissal 

 of the topic in his Natural History, 1 where he begins a 

 paragraph as if he were about to discuss "emissions which 

 cause attraction of certain bodies at a distance," but does 

 nothing beyond excepting the lodestone from the category 

 and noting his intention of considering "the drawing of 

 amber and jet and other electric bodies " besides sundry 

 other attractions under another title, which he appears 

 never to have done. But if "imitation is the sincerest 

 flattery," this is a shining example of it, which may justify 

 the suggestion already made that in respect to this part of 

 Gilbert's contribution to the world's knowledge Bacon's 

 attitude is that of a disciple. He adds nothing to Gilbert's 

 results he does not dispute a single physical happening. 

 But when he comes to the consideration of Gilbert's hy- 

 pothesis of electrical action based on these experiments, 

 then his inclination to dispute conclusions asserts itself. 

 He will not accept Gilbert's assumption of effluvia purely 

 physical notion as it is. He prefers to go back to anti- 

 quity, and exhume one of those brain-spun abstractions, 

 which it is his delight to condemn. 



"The electrical operation, of which Gilbert and others 

 after him have told so many fables, is none other," he 

 avers, "than an appetite of the body excited by light fric- 

 tion which does not well tolerate the air, but prefers any- 



'Nat. Hist., cent, x., 906. 



