William Gilbert of Colchester. By Charles E. Benham. (Benham and
Co., Colchester.)—William Gilbert was a physician (President of the College in 1600) who ranks high among the pioneers of experimental science. Mr. Benham justly claims for him, not any specially great discoveries, but a recognition of that fruitful principle that you must begin with the individual. This faith was in the air of the time ; nor is it difficult to see how it naturally followed on the downfall of the old method of reasoning. Bacon stands pre-eminent among this school of thinkers. He was famous in other ways, and he had a large outlook on the world, but he was one of many ; nor did he fail to acknowledge his obligations, especially to Gilbert. Gilbert's opus magnum was published late in life. Its concluding chapter was devoted to an acceptance of the Copernican theory. This scandalised some of his friends, but it should be noted by .those who maintain that tolerance and intolerance are mere matters of time that Gilbert, for all his astronomical heresy, was made physician to James I. (not, as Mr. Benham says, to Elizabeth) about twenty years before Galileo was thrown into prison for maintaining exactly the same thing.
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