The attention that electricity now commands, by its intimate relations with the other physical sciences and by the important Objects to which it is applied, makes it particularly desirable that the student Of natural philosophy should have the means Of attaining, in a compendious form, a knowledge Of the progress of electric science to the present day, and of comprehending its varied phenomena, and the applications of which it has been found capable. With this Object in view, the author has endeavoured to set forth clearly, yet concisely, the prominent points in the history Of electricity, and to notice and explain all those phenomena which indicate any special attribute Of that peculiar force.