New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-12-21
songs OF the people and his study Of negro music
occupy the larger part Of this volume.
ELECTRICAL THEORIES IN HISTORY.

ELECTRICAL THEORIES IN HISTORY
THE INTEL ,ECTrAL RISE IN N.ECTRICIT9.
a II story BY Park Benjamin, Pm H., LIZ ID
PIP XII, Gil. D. Appleton a Co
Mr. BENJAMIN shows by an example that IL tane'
a big book to tell the story Of what happened pe
i ,uoor Tbo,es and Franklin between the time when
observations were first recorded on the attracuo"
OF the loadstone and the time when IL was ~
dered certain that the lightning IN Inc c'o"'' ~.
the attractive and repelng force IN the N'"S"
and in amber were and the same thihs'
ertbeess the whole story is one rather OF uh'h'in
ing mental preudices than Of attempting 10 '"''N
Tho fac.s Every case in which men turned away
from their own preconceptions to look Simply al
what happened 10 the bits OF iron atuacteu W
the loadstone or the bits OF straw attracted y! "'
amber the result was that they mace step io'
ward. When they turned back and tried 10 ac'
count for the facts from their own inner coii-
sc,ousness they merely added new supersttions 10
those which were already in existence. That is
why II is hard to understand Mr. benjamin o""
summary OF the lesson which his book teaches'
He says that the history OF magnetic ana eieo
,rcal investigation is that OF the Intellect at work
h,ud,no the universe OF which It is the key: find
inc anew that nature also Is working In every de-
tail after the laws Of the human mind. IL might
seem as II the lesson should be ono much es'
stimulating to the arrogance OF the human '"'e'
lect as II the laws OF mind deserved 10 DC coi
rected Mt every turn lest they forced tho creature
n,h,ch thew dominate to misapprehend facts. IL
one looks over the vast array OF lnVestlsators'
theorists and myth-makers whom MI behJaiii'i'
has marshalled in this volume one mas tha' e"oh
Of these who accomplished anything did 30 by cor
rectnp the mental vision OF himself and MS con-
,emDoraries Tholes excluded the influence or tho
gods from the loadstone Theophrastus exciuoeo
the soul which Thoes imagined as animaung inc
magnet St Augustine saw what the ancient
,,blosophers had ignored-the fact that there was
difference between amber attraction and masnetio
attraction The belief that there were TWO ui-
ferent loadstones one OF which attracted WINE 'he
other repelled iron dispensed with by AieAa"-
dor Neckam The fact that the earth itsell was
magnet was dmly perceived by disciple OF roger
Racon and Bacon himself cleared the way 10 uii-
Outstanding the law of magnetic attracuoh anu
ranu,s,on which men had before ignored, Simply
because they neglected TO their eyes IN prefer
ence TO taking knowledge at secondhand oaro"i
observed the fact of electrical INSULATION ih"''
one after another famous men discovered one ny
ono facts that seem now to lie on the very sur
face of things until finally Franklin. with MS kte'
drew the electric spark from a thunder-ciouo' 90
MANY thousand years spent in getting humanity u
a Mace where IL could see things just as they Meie
constitute an argument for intellectual mummy
RI her than the intellectual pride OF race "hcn
,ong sunnosed that the whole universe revolved
ground Ire tiny dwelling-pace. Mr.. BenJamins
hook is a perfect treasury OF recondte learning
history of scientific literature. In fact from the
earliest times 10 the close Of the eighteenth