William Gilbert of Colchester: a Sketch of his Magnetic Philosophy

Abstract

THE immediate occasion of the appearance of this little book is the issue to the subscribers of the Gilbert Club of the English translation of “De Magnete.” The author has attempted, and with real success, to show what manner of man Gilbert was, wherein lay his genius, what were his merits, and what also were his faults and failings. Mr. Benham dwells on the circumstance that, although Gilbert's actual discoveries were few and crude, he must be judged rather by the spirit of his work. “He was not the builder of sciences, but the architect of a truly scientific spirit; and his life-work consisted in the doctrine, new to England, that all scientific knowledge must be. founded on practical experiment and observation alone, instead of upon speculations and theories evolved out of inner consciousness.” The successive chapters of the book deal with the old magnetic philosophies, magnetic motions and electric force, the magnet's “directive virtue,” the variation of the compass, the dip and “orbes of virtue” of the magnet, the life of the Universe (in which Gilbert, although no Manichean, was clearly a believer) and the Copernican theory. The author is particularly happy in his treatment of this last topic; but throughout the analysis of Gilbert's work is accurate and discriminating. The book is illustrated with a picture of Gilbert's terrella, and another of his tombstone in the church of Holy Trinity, Colchester. William Gilbert of Colchester: a Sketch of his Magnetic Philosophy. By Charles E. Benham. Pp. 96. (Colchester: Benham and Co., 1902.) Price 2s. net.