STATE OF LEARNING IN ITALY. 341 



Such was the reception which was accorded the Gilbert- 

 ian discoveries at home; five years of neglect and probable 

 ridicule, then Bacon's initial attack, then plagiarism of 

 them, and finally a wrangle between the appropriators. 

 Besides, and almost at the outset, there came from Hol- 

 land the sneering comment of Scaliger the son then pro- 

 fessor of Belles Lettres at the University of Ley den swift 

 to repay the sharp criticisms of Gilbert upon the vagaries 

 of Scaliger the father. "A certain Englishman produced 

 a book on the magnet three years ago," he writes to Casau- 

 bon, "which has not justified the expectations formed of 

 it." "It proved to be more his doctrine," he said at an- 

 other time, "than the nature of the magnet.." 1 



"Stare negas Terrain: nobis miracula n arras: 

 Hae cum scribebas: in rate forsan eras," 



was the sneering epigram written by John Owen. 2 



Between the state of learning in England during the 

 period before noted and that existing in Italy, the contrast 

 is impressive. 3 In the latter country, at the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, peace had reigned unbroken for 

 forty years and as a consequence the advance in all the 

 arts of civilization had been rapid. The universities of 

 Bologna, Padua, Pisa and Pavia were attracting larger 

 numbers of students than ever before, and of these no 

 small proportion were devoting themselves to mathematics 



1 Scaliger: Epist. 200, and Epist. ad Casaubon. For these and other 

 criticisms of Gilbert see Blount: Censura Celebriorum Authorum, Gen- 

 eva, 1710. 



2 "This firm-set earth, you do deny. 



Perhaps when this you wrote 

 'Twas not the sky that sailed by, 

 But only you, afloat. 



"See Hallam's Literature of Europe, vols. II and III.; also Robertson's 

 Fra Paolo Sarpi, London, 1893. 



