ver, and to
prove beyond all possibility of doubt, the circulation of the blood." He
afterwards expresses his astonishment that this discovery should have
been left for Harvey, though he acknowledges it occupied "a course of
years;" adding that "Providence meant to reserve it for _him_, and would
not let men _see what was before them, nor understand what they read_."
It is remarkable that when great discoveries are effected, their
simplicity always seems to detract from their originality: on these
occasions we are reminded of the egg of Columbus!

It is said that a recent discovery, which ascertains that the Niger
empties itself into the Atlantic Ocean, was really anticipated by the
geographical acumen of a student at Glasgow, who arrived at the same
conclusion by a most persevering investigation of the works of
travellers and geographers, ancient and modern, and by an examination of
African captives; and had actually constructed, for the inspection of
government, a map of Africa, on which he had traced the entire course of
the Niger from the interior.

Franklin _conjectured_ the identity of lightning and of electricity,
before he had _realised_ it by decisive experiment. The kite being
raised, a considerable time elapsed before there was any appearance of
its being electrified. One very promising cloud had passed over it
without any effect. Just as he was beginning to despair of his
contrivance, he observed some loose threads of the hempen string to
stand erect, and to avoid one another, just as if they had been
suspended on a common conductor. Struck with this promising appearance,
he immediately presented his knuckle to the key! And let the reader
judge of the exquisite pleasure he must have felt at that moment when
_the discovery was complete_! We owe to Priestley this admirable
narrative; the strong sensation of delight which Franklin experienced as
his knuckle touched the key, and at the moment when he felt that a new
world was opening, might have been equalled, but it was probably not
surpassed, when the same hand signed the long-disputed independence of
his country!

When Leibnitz was occupied in his philosophical reasonings on his _Law
of Continuity_, his singular sagacity enabled him to predict a discovery
which afterwards was realised--he _imagined_ the necessary existence of
the polypus!

It has been remarked of Newton, that several of his slight hints, some
in the modest form of queries, have been asce