On subjects which regard taste, or which address themselves to the imagination, on poetry, eloquence and the fine arts, it is to the ancients we are to look for information and the models of perfection. But on the various branches of knowledge which depend on observation, on experiment, on investigation, which comprehend all the parts of mechanical philosophy, the philosophers of antiquity afford little that is either new or just. Hurried away by the vivacity of their genius, which their peculiar complexion invited them to cultivate, and the particular circumstances of the age were calculated to inflame, they investigated facts, not that by accumulated discoveries they might lay the foundation of solid science, but so far only as they served to support or illustrate some favourite hypothesis. Aristotle, to whose profound and elevated genius we are accustomed to turn for satisfactory information on so many other subjects, affords no remarks on electricity, and little worthy of observation on most of the branches of natural science. One, who on this point has a right to speak, observes.—“That though there are several very sublime questions in his physics, which he clears up in a very masterly way, yet the main, the gross of the work is good for nothing, infelix operis summa.[4]” From the time of Theophrastus till the beginning of the 17th century of the christian æra, there is no unequivocal evidence that in the science of electricity any discovery or improvement was made, except the solitary and unimportant fact that jet, and perhaps agate, is endued with the same power as amber, of attracting and repelling light bodies.—Nor is it ascertained by whom, or at what particular period, this fact was added to the slender stock of electrical knowledge which was then possessed. And thus it appears that for the space of about 1900 years, the part of philosophy, of which we trace the history, was nearly stationary. SECTION II. _Electricity as known to the Moderns._ Having seen, in the preceding section, the very limited knowledge of electricity possessed by the ancients, we now come to give an account of what may properly be called its real origin, and to trace its progress to the present day. In doing this, we shall be careful to note all the original authors who have touched upon this subject; and to exhibit most of their discoveries. We believe it to be generally the case, that, in the earlier periods of a science, the mind is curious to observe the gradual developement of principles, and the gradual increase of facts, however unimportant these facts may afterwards appear. But as the science progresses, as the ground widens and observations multiply, this curiosity proportionably abates, and we require of the historian selection rather than detail.