Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/98



The nearer the parts are to the æquinoctial, the more obliquely are magneticals allured; but the parts nearer the poles appeal more directly, at the poles quite straight. The principle of the turning of all loadstones, of those which are round and those which are long, is the same, but in the case of the long ones the experiment is easier. For in whatever form they are the verticity exists, and there are poles; but on account of bad and unequal form, they are often hindered by certain evils. If the stone were long, the vertex is at the ends, not on the sides; it allures more strongly at the vertex. For the parts bring together stronger forces to the pole in right lines than oblique. So the stone and the earth conform their magnetick motions by their nature.

ROM about a magnetical body the virtue magnetical is poured out on every side around in an orbe; around a terrella; in the case of other shapes of stones, more confusedly and unevenly. But yet there exists in nature no orbe or permanent or essential virtue spread through the air, but a magnet