MAKERS OF ELECTRICITY

The ancients laid down the laws of literary form in prose as well as in

verse, and bequeathed to posterity works which still serve as models

of excellence. Their poets and historians continue to be read for the

sake of the narrative and beauty of the style; their philosophers for

breadth and depth of thought; and their orators for judicious analysis

and impassioned eloquence.

In the exact sciences, too, the ancients were conspicuous leaders by

reason of the number and magnitude of the discoveries which they

made. You have only to think of Euclid and his "Elements," of

Apollonius and his Conics, of Eratosthenes and his determination of

the earth's circumference, of Archimedes and his mensuration of the

sphere, and of the inscription on Plato's Academy, Let none ignorant of

geometry enter my door, to realize the fondness of the Greek mind for

abstract truth and its suppleness and ingenuity in mathematical

investigation.

But the sciences of observation did not advance with equal pace; nor

was this to be expected, as time is an essential element in

experimentation and in the collection of data, both of which are

necessary for the framing of theories in explanation of natural

phenomena.