54? THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



are so-many of what they term "bizarreries," or unaccount- 

 able phenomena in the course of electrical experiments, 

 that a man can scarce assert anything in consequence of 

 any experiment which is not contradicted by some unex- 

 pected occurrence in another;" and the same correspondent 

 quotes the famous naturalist De Buffon as saying, that the 

 whole subject of electricity is " not yet sufficiently ripe for 

 the establishment of a course of laws, or indeed of any cer- 

 tain one, fixed and determinate in all its circumstances," 

 which is significant in view of the persistence with which 

 Abbe Nollet was advocating his favorite effluence doctrine, 

 to which allusion has already been made. 



I/emonnier had (probably in Watson's eyes) committed 

 the indiscretion of announcing discoveries which Watson 

 insisted he himself had in petto. The natural philosopher 

 while sometimes, like other humanity, apt to indulge in 

 the wish, "Pereant male qui ante nos nostra dixissent," 1 

 has a better method of self assertion, at hand which has 

 the merit of being useful. It consists simply in making 

 additional experiments, which, even if they go to sup- 

 port the discovery of one's rival, completely eclipse, by 

 their magnitude or striking character, those on which the 

 latter has rested his conclusions. There is much sagacity 

 in this, because human nature is very apt to link the great 

 results to the great object lessons, and not to the little 

 ones, especially after time has befogged the chronology. 

 Thus did Watson, with respect to Lemon nier; in dealing 

 with Franklin, as we shall see later, he adopted a different 

 course, equally favorable to himself, and equally tinctured 

 with worldly wisdom. 



'Less sententiously, but perhaps as well said in Chevalier D'Aceilly's 

 version : 



"Dis-je quelque chose assez belle 

 L ; antiquite" tout en cervelle 

 Pretend 1 avoir dite avant moi, 

 Ce"st une plaisante donzelle! 

 Que ne venait-elle apres moi ? 

 J'aurais dit la chose avant elle! " 



