366 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



Kircher was an admirable compiler, and, as a storehouse 

 of doubtful facts, his work is interesting-. Of course, he 

 agreed with Cabaeus that the earth is not a magnet, but 

 magnetic. And his proof thereof is impressive. "How 

 vast its mass how prodigious would be its effects what 

 could resist its capacity?" that is if it were a magnet, 

 and not merely magnetic. He is a Professor of Mathe- 

 matics, and to numbers he appeals. Comparing the size 

 of the earth with that of a terrella a few inches in diam- 

 eter, he staggers his reader with the assertion that if the 

 terrella can attract one pound, the earth, if a magnet, can 

 attract over three octillion pounds. That is sufficient for 

 an exact idea of just what the earth can do : and so he 

 returns to his Jeremiad. 



" Woe to all iron implements," he thunders, u woe to all 

 horses and mules (probably on account of their shoes), woe 

 to cataphracts, woe to Gilbert's kitchen utensils." Why, 

 the rocks and the precipices and the mountains would be 

 bound in an indissoluble mass everything would keep 

 still! Instead of the motion Gilbert predicts, there would 

 be utter quiet and the end of all movement. After that, 

 denunciation follows naturally and strong, sweeping de- 

 nunciation too. 



"Proprium est haereticorum res divinas et incompre- 

 hensas ingenio suo metiri, quas nisi comprehenderint nee 

 credere velle videntur " duly clinched with a quotation 

 from Nazianzenus, Orat, 24. 



But it did not do much good. The misbelieving Prot- 

 estants wagged their heads in derision as usual, and the 

 good sons of the Church took it all as a sermon, well 

 enough in the abstract no doubt, but having no real im- 

 mediate bearing upon the magnetic and electric problems 

 which they were anxious to solve : certainly none com- 

 parable to that which would instantly be recognized in 

 even a look askance from the Holy Inquisition. 



