Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/58



ITHERTO we have declared the nature & powers of the loadstone, & also the properties & essence of iron; it now remains to show their mutual affinities, & kinship, so to speak, & how very closely conjoined these substances are. At the highest part of the terrestrial globe, or at its perishable surface & rind, as it were, these two bodies usually originate & are produced in one and the same matrix, as twins in one mine. Strong loadstones are dug up by themselves, weaker ones too have their own proper vein. Both are found in iron mines. Iron ore most often occurs alone, without strong loadstone (for the more perfect are rarely met with). Strong loadstone is a stone resembling iron; out of it is usually smelted the finest iron, which the Greeks call stomoma, the Latins acies, the Barbarians (not amiss) aciare, or aciarium. This same stone draws, repels, controls other loadstones, directs itself to the poles of the world, picks up smelted iron, and works many other wonders, some already set forth by us, but many more which we must demonstrate more fully. A weaker loadstone, however, will exhibit all these powers, but in a lesser degree; while iron ore, & also wrought iron (if they have been prepared) show their strength in all magnetick experiments not less than do feeble and weak loadstones; & an inert piece of ore, & one possessed of no magnetick properties, & just thrown out of the pit, when roasted in the fire & prepared with due art (by the elimination of humours & foreign excretions) awakes, and becomes in power & potency a magnet. Occasionally a stone or iron ore is mined, which attracts forthwith without being prepared: for native iron of the right colour attracts and governs iron magnetically. One form then belongs to the one mineral, one species, one self-same essence. For to me there seems to be a greater difference, & unlikeness, between the strongest load-