Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/87



ELINQUISHING the opinions of others on the attraction of loadstone, we shall now show the reason of that coition and the translatory nature of that motion. Since there are really two kinds of bodies, which seem to allure bodies with motions manifest to our senses, Electricks and Magneticks, the Electricks produce the tendency by natural effluvia from humour; the Magneticks by agencies due to form, or rather by the prime forces. This form is unique, and particular, not the formal cause of the Peripateticks, or the specifick in mixtures, or the secondary form; not the propagator of generating bodies, but the form of the primary and chief spheres and of those parts of them which are homogeneous and not corrupted, a special entity and existence, which we may call a primary and radical and astral form; not the primary form of Aristotle, but that unique form, which preserves and disposes its own proper sphere. There is one such in each several globe, in the Sun, the moon, and the stars; one also in the earth, which is that true magnetick potency which we call the primary vigour. Wherefore there is a magnetick nature peculiar to the earth and implanted in all its truer parts in a primary and astonishing manner; this is neither derived nor produced from the whole heaven by sympathy or influence or more occult qualities, nor from any particular star; for there is in the earth a magnetick vigour of its own, just as in the sun and moon there are forms of their own, and a small portion of the moon settles itself in moon-manner toward its termini and form; and a piece of the sun to the sun, just as a loadstone to the earth and to a second loadstone by inclining itself and alluring in accordance with its nature. We must consider therefore about the earth what magnetical bodies are, and what is a magnet; then also about the truer parts of it, which are magnetical, and how they are affected as a result of the coition. A body which is attracted by an electrick is not changed by it, but remains unshaken and unchanged, as it was before, nor does it excel any the more in virtue. A loadstone draws magnetical substances, which eagerly acquire power from its strength, not in their extremities only, but in their inward parts and * their very marrow. For when a rod of iron is laid hold of, it is magnetically excited in the end by which it is laid hold of, and that