It was just after Ben Franklin's kite flying days. Some Frenchmen were experimenting with electricity. They wanted to know how fast it moves. The Abbot of a large monastery volunteered his monks for the experiment. The monks had taken a vow of obedience so they had no choice. They lined up a thousand of the monks, each holding the hand of those next to him. Then the electric current was applied to the first man in line, and according to an account of this experiment, every one of those 1,000 monks jumped up into the air precisely at the same moment. That must have been quite a sight.

I draw three conclusions from this story: first, electricity moves with astonishing speed; second, abbots in French monasteries in the eighteenth century had tremendous authority over their monks; and third, …