The public mind has had its mental toddy and has been saved from a fit of intellectual delirium tremens that it was in danger of from lack of its accustomed stimulus. Having given you a very limited outline of the history of electricity, from ancient times down to the present, we will endeavor now to give you an elementary notion of the science as it stands to-day. To the common mind the science is a blank page. So little is known of it by the ordinary reader, who is fairly intelligent in other matters, that to account for anything that we do not understand it is only necessary to say that it is an electrical phenomenon and he accepts it. Electricity is a synonym for all that we cannot understand. Inasmuch as magnetism is so closely related to electricity in its uses as related to every-day life, we will carry the two subjects along together, as the one will to a large extent help to explain the other. In our next chapter we will look at the history of magnetism. CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF MAGNETISM. It is said that the word magnetism is derived from the name of a Greek shepherd, called Magnes, who once observed on Mount Ida the attractive properties of loadstone when applied to his iron shepherd's crook. It is more likely that the name came from Magnesia, a country in Lydia, where it was first discovered. It was also called Lapis Heracleus. Heraclea was the capital of Magnesia. Loadstone is a magnetic ore or oxide of iron found in the natural state, and has at some time by natural processes been rendered magnetic--that is, given the power of attracting iron, and, when suspended, of pointing to the North and South Poles. The power of the natural magnet was known at a very early age in the history of man. It was referred to by Homer, Pythagoras, and Aristotle. Pliny also speaks of it, and refers to one Dinocares, who recommended to Ptolemy Philadelphus to build a temple at Alexandria and suspend in its vault a statue of the queen by the attractive power of "loadstones." There is also mention of a statue being suspended in like manner in the temple of Serapis, Alexandria.