526 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



elsewhere. Here then was the electric matter not only 

 seemingly shut up in a jar, but retained in a definite con- 

 tinuous circuit. 



It was not long before experiments on the L,eyden jar, 

 due to mere curiosity to witness the strength of the dis- 

 charge, began to give place to more rational investigation. 

 Then it became manifest that a great change had taken 

 place, and that the progress of thought was to be different 

 from ever before. The field of research had suddenly 

 broadened, and now new paths, opening in all directions, 

 lost themselves in the mists of the new horizon. The old 

 way continued onward in far perspective, but nowhere on 

 the shadowy circle was there a sign to show that the goal 

 whither it was believed to tend the discovery of the ulti- 

 mate nature of electricity was a whit the nearer. Of 

 these paths one led apparently to the solution of the 

 mysteries of the wonder-working jar ; another to the 

 revelation of the capabilities of the force confined in the 

 circuit ; to the hiding-place of a potent weapon where- 

 with to combat all ills and diseases, a third seemed 

 directed; while a solitary finger-post pointed, not to the 

 low-lying fog, but straight upward to the clouds upward 

 to the very home of the lightning. Many such ways 

 stood open, but of them all, to the foregoing were appar- 

 ently the most inviting. Into the first two flocked the 

 electricians, and into the third the physicians. The fourth 

 remained for awhile untraversed, awaiting the advent of a 

 philosopher who just then was regulating municipal affairs 

 for the staid citizens of far-off Philadelphia. 



The European electricians worked assiduously. Their 

 experiments are legion. The records especially of those 

 devoted to correcting their own mistakes would fill huge 

 volumes, but do not, thanks to the mercilessly winnowing 

 rules of the Royal Society and the French Academy 

 ordinances which were enforced by public opinion outside 

 of the circles of those learned bodies as effectively as 

 within them. There are no big folios and massive quartos 



