Nature's Laws And Wonders

Some time ago in Shade's history, Gery Illumin, a gentleman (or gentlewoman - see Gery's entry) scholar, compiled a seminal, encyclopaedic treatise called Nature's Laws and Wonders, often shortened to Nature's Laws.

This work was (and still is, in a sense) unique, being the only attempt at a comprehensive collection of every scientific and magical fact and theory of the time.

Many of the theories in Nature's Laws were later discredited or disproved, but the collation and fact-checking was meticulous (especially for its time). Nature's Laws is therefore not a representative magoscientific cross-section, missing as it does some of the more outlandish and obviously inaccurate philosophies of the age. (One gets the feeling controversy was not an issue for Gery, as [Lenser's Reticule Invective]? was included, but he or she apparently yielded to a not unreasonable fear of discredit in omitting the [Pixie-Powder heresy]? and similar.) Some of Gery's notes and omitted entries were published much later and provide an illuminating insight, if readers will pardon the pun.