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.