Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/150



But if applied to one another along a meridian they are immediately joined firmly together, not only on and near the stone, but even at some distance within the force of the controlling orbe. Thus they are joined and cemented together at E, but not at C in the other figure. For the opposite ends C and F meet and adhære together in the case of the iron just in the same way as A and B before in the case of the stone. But they are opposite ends, because the pieces of iron proceed from the opposite sides and poles of the terrella; and C in reference to the northern pole A is southern, and F is boreal in reference to the southern pole B. In like manner also they are cemented together, if the rod C (being not too long) be moved further toward A, and F toward B, and they be joined together over the terrella, like A and B of the divided stone above. But now if the cusp A, which has been touched by a loadstone, be the southern end, and you were to touch and rub with this the cusp of another iron needle B, which has not been touched, B will be northern, and will point to the south. But if you were to touch with the northern point B any other iron needle, still new, on its cusp, this again will be southern, and will turn to the north. The iron not only receives the necessary strength from the loadstone, if it be a good loadstone, but also imparts its acquired strength to another piece of iron, and the second to a third (always in strict accordance with magnetick laws). In all these demonstrations of ours it should always be borne in mind that the poles of a stone, as well as those of iron, whether touched or untouched, are always in fact and by nature opposite to the pole toward which they point and are so designated by us, as we have laid down above. For in them all it is always the northern which tends to the south, either of the earth or of the stone, and the southern which tends to the north of the stone. Northern parts are attracted by the southern of the earth; so in the boat they