Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/148

 pole of the earth to which that pole of that loadstone turned by which it was excited. It has been pointed out that iron and loadstone are of one primary nature; when the iron is joined to the loadstone, they become, as it were, one body, and not only is the end of the iron changed, but the remaining parts also are affected along with it. A, the north pole of a loadstone, is placed against the cusp of a piece of iron; the cusp of the iron has now become the southern part of the iron, because it is touching the northern part of the stone; the cross-end of the iron has become the northern. For if that contiguous magnetick substance be separated from the pole of the terrella, or from the parts near the pole, the one end (or the end which, whilst the connection was kept up, was touching the northern part of the stone) is the southern, whilst the other is the northern. So also if a versorium excited by a loadstone be divided into ever so many parts (however small), those parts when separated will, it is clear, arrange themselves in the same disposition as that in which they were disposed before, when they were undivided. Wherefore whilst the cusp remains over the northern pole A, it is not the southern end, but is, as it were, part of a whole; but when it is taken away from the stone, it is the southern end, because when rubbed it tended toward the northern parts of the stone, and the cross (the other end of the versorium) is the northern end. The loadstone and the iron make one body; B is the south pole of the whole; C (that is, the cross) is the northern end of the whole; divide the iron also at E, and E will be the southern end with respect to the cross; and E will likewise be the northern end in respect to B. A is the true northern pole of the stone and is attracted by the southern pole of the earth. The end of the iron which is touched by the true boreal part of the stone becomes the southern end, and turns to A, the north [pole] of the stone, if it be near; or if it be some distance from the stone it turns to the north [pole] of the earth. So always iron which is touched (if it is free and unrestrained) tends to the opposite part of the earth from that part to which the loadstone that touched it tends. Nor does it make any difference how it is rubbed, whether straight up or slanting in some way. For in any case the verticity flows into the iron, pro-