104 



ELECTRICITY. 



science are thus sown, and soon begin to germinate. Whether such primary 

 facts are really fortuitous, or ought not rather to be viewed as the prompting 

 of HIM, whose will is that intellectual progression shall be incessant, it is cer- 

 tain that they not only give the first impetus to science, but their occasional 

 and timely occurrence in its progress produces frequently greater effects on the 

 celerity of its advancement than the most exalted powers of the human mind, 

 unsupported by such aid, have ever accomplished. It may then be imagined 

 that if any such hints were offered by ordinary phenomena, an agent so all- 

 pervading as electricity could scarcely have eluded notice, or failed to command 

 attention, during a succession of ages which witnessed the growth and exten- 

 sion of so many other parts of natural knowledge. On the contrary, the class 

 of effects in which electricity originated was observed by and well known to 

 the early philosophers of Greece. THALES, six centuries before the Christian 

 era, was acquainted with the property of amber, from which electricity derives 

 its name ; * and Theophrastus and Pliny, as well as other writers, Greek and 

 Roman, mention the property of this and certain other substances, in virtue of 

 which, when submitted to friction, they acquire the power to attract straws, 

 and other light bodies, as a magnet attracts iron. In the spirit which charac- 

 terized the times, such effects were regarded with feelings of superstition. A 

 soul was ascribed to amber, and it was held sacred. 



Nor were these the only phenomena which presented themselves to the an- 

 cients, and. afforded them a clue to the foundation of this part of physics. 



Various other scattered facts are recorded, which prove that nature did not 

 conceal her secrets with more than usual coyness in this case. The luminous 

 appearance attending the friction of those substances which exhibited electrical 

 effects was observed. The Roman historians record the frequent appearance 

 of a flame at the points of the soldiers' javelins, at the summits of the masts of 

 ships, and sometimes even on the heads of the seamen. f The effects of the 

 torpedo and electrical fishes are referred to by Aristotle, Galen and Oppian ; 

 and at a period less remote, Eustathius, in his Commentary on the Iliad of 

 Homer, mentions the case of Walimer, a Gothic chief, the father of Theodo- 

 ric, who used to eject sparks from his body ; and further refers to a certain 

 ancient philosopher, who relates of himself that on one occasion, when chan- 

 ging his dress, sudden sparks were emitted from his person on drawing off his 

 clothes, and that flames occasionally issued from him, accompanied by a 

 crackling noise.l 



Such phenomena attracted little attention, and provoked no scientific research. 

 Vacant wonder was the most exalted sentiment they raised ; and they accord- 

 ingly remained, while twenty centuries rolled away, barren and isolated facts 

 upon the surface of human knowledge. The vein whence these precious frag- 

 ments were detached, and which, as we have shown, cropped out sufficiently 

 often to challenge the notice of the miner, continued unexplored and undiscov- 

 ered ; and its splendid treasures were reserved to reward the toil and crown 

 the enterprise of our generation. 



The work of classification and generalization was first commenced upon the 

 phenomena of electricity by Gilbert, an English physician, in a work entitled 

 De Magnete, published in the beginning of the seventeenth century. In this 

 treatise, the substances then known to be susceptible of electrical excitement 

 were enumerated, and several of the circumstances which affect the production 

 of electixca.. phenomena, such as the hygrometric state of the atmosphere, 

 were explained. Between that period and the earlier part of the last century 



* "HATj59i/, amber. 



t Cajsar, de Bell. Afr. cap. vi. Liv. cap. xxxii. Plut Vita Lys. Plin. sec. Hist Mun. lib. ii. 



I Eudtatk. in Iliad, E. 



