328 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



says that "the Alchemists have made a philosophy out of 

 a few experiments of the furnace, and Gilbert, our country- 

 man, hath made a philosophy out of observations of the 

 lodestoue " this being in illustration of the proneness of 

 humanity to generalize upon insufficient or incomplete 

 data. The same statement is repeated in the Novum Or- 

 ganum, published fifteen years later, and in the De Aug- 

 mentis (1623). And, finally, in the History of Heavy and 

 Light Bodies, which did not appear until after Bacon's 

 death, it takes a more severe form, declaring that Gilbert 

 "has himself become a magnet; that is, he has ascribed too 

 many things to that force and built a ship out of a shell." 

 Apparently, it took Bacon as long to reach a final formula- 

 tion of this judgment as it did Gilbert to make all the 

 experiments in the De Magnete. 



Another even more curious example forms a part of his 

 attack on Gilbert, especially as a Copernican. In the Ad- 

 vancement of Learning, he speaks of the establishment of 

 a Calendar of Sects of Philosophy, in which he proposes the 

 setting down of the philosophy of "Gilbert, our country- 

 man, who revived, with some alterations and demonstra- 

 tions, the opinions of Xenophanes." The opinions of 

 Xenophanes, who was the founder of the Eleatic school of 

 Greek philosophy, concerning astronomy, were extravagant 

 in extreme ; but, as they included a wild speculation in- 

 volving terrestrial rotation, he is commonly mentioned 

 among the ancient prototypes of Copernicus. Bacon's 

 statement, of course, had no foundation in fact, and was 

 derisively intended. This is repeated with odd variations. 

 In the Cogitata et Visa, we are told that "our countryman 

 Gilbert," in order that he might examine the nature of the 

 magnet, constantly sought, with great firmness, constancy 

 of judgment and many experiments, u to start new sects in 

 natural philosophy ; nor did he hesitate to turn into 

 ridicule the name of Xenophanes, to whose opinions he 

 himself inclined." In the Redargutio Philosophorum this 

 is changed to read that he turned the name of Xenophanes 



