WRIGHT AND BARLOWE. 335 



all his authority in the state, could never raise any college 

 of Solomon but in a romance." l Such were the times dur- 

 ing which the announcement of the electrical discoveries 

 of Gilbert appeared. 



As a Copernican, Gilbert, in his own country, had few 

 co-believers; and as he had not merely linked his physical 

 researches to the heliocentric doctrine, but had sought to 

 substantiate the latter by them, it followed for this reason 

 that his entire work stood discredited in the eyes of Eng- 

 lish scholars generally.. But even if he had not adhered 

 to the new theory, it may well be doubted whether there 

 was sufficient knowledge of physical science existing in 

 England to secure for his magnetic and electric discoveries 

 even a superficial understanding by the learned classes. 

 So far as written records prove, there were but two men in 

 the kingdom, both his personal friends, who, had any 

 special attainments in matters magnetical. These were 

 Edward Wright 2 and William Barlowe, 3 and even their 

 interest in the subject was mainly utilitarian, and depended 

 upon the belief that Gilbert had discovered some new nav- 

 igating instruments and simpler methods than were in ex- 

 istence for finding a ship's position at sea. 



Gilbert had no practical knowledge of navigation, and 

 his sea voyaging had begun and ended with the crossing 

 of the English Channel when he made his continental 

 tour. Wright, on the other hand, was probably the most 

 skillful sea mathematician in all England. He had made 

 long voyages, even to South America. He had plotted 

 new charts and corrected old ones, and had even become 

 involved in a dispute with the famous Gerhard Mercator, 

 wherein he claimed the maps, made on what is now known 

 as Mercator' s projection, to have been of his own first de- 

 vising. He had invented new methods of solar observa- 



1 Sprat: Hist. Roy. Soc. London, 1667. 



2 Bibliographica Philosophica. 



8 Wood: Athenae Oxonienses, 1813; Biograph. Britann.; LeNeve: Fasti. 

 Eccl. Anglia. Ed. Hardy; Stephen: Dicty. Nat. Biog. N. Y., 1885. 



