Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/210

 then declination is apparent, and the iron inclines toward the body of the earth in its own meridian. Let A B, for example, be the visible horizon of a place; C D the horizontal through the earth, dividing it into equal parts; E F the axis of the earth; G the position of the place. It is manifest that the boreal pole E is elevated above the point C by as much as G is distant from the æquator. Wherefore, since at E the magnetick needle stands perpendicularly in its proper turning (as we have often shown before), so now at G there is a certain tendency to turn in proportion to the latitude (the magnetick dipping below the plane of the horizon), and the magnetick body intersects the horizon at unequal angles, and exhibits a declination below the horizon. For the same reason, if the declinatory needle be placed at G, its southern end, the one namely which is directed toward the North, dips below the plane of the visible horizon A B. And so there is the greatest difference between a right sphere and a polar or parallel sphere, in which the pole is at the very Zenith. For in a right sphere the needle is parallel to the plane of the horizon; but when the cœlestial pole is vertically overhead, or when the pole of the earth is itself the place of the region, then the needle is perpendicular to the horizon. This is shown by a round stone. Let a small dipping-needle, of two digits length (rubbed with a magnet), be hung in the air like a balance, and let the stone be carefully placed under it; and first let the terrella be at right angles, as in a right sphere, and as in the first figure; for so the magnetick needle will remain in æquilibrium. But in an oblique position of the terrella, as in an oblique sphere, and in the second figure, the needle dips obliquely at one end toward the near pole, but does not rest on the pole, nor is its dip ruled by the pole, but by the body and mass of the whole; for the