by William Gilbert

“ Thus each one of the moving globes is for its own safety borne in an orbit either in some wider circle, or only by a rotation of its body, or by both together. But it is ridiculous for a man a philosopher to suppose that all the fixed stars and the planets and the still higher heavens revolve to no other purpose, save the advantage of the Earth. It is the Earth, then, that revolves, not the whole heaven, and this motion gives opportunity for the growth and decrease of things, and for the generating of things animate, and awakens internal heat for the bringing of them to birth. ”

“ But those follies are old wives' gossip, and the rubbish of certain philosophizers, men who, when they essay to treat of the highest truths and the fabrick of the universe, and hazard anything, can scarce understand aught ultra crepidam. They would have the Earth to be the centre of a circle; and therefore to rest motionless amid the rotation. But neither the stars nor the wandering globes move about the Earth's centre: the high heaven also does not move circularly round the Earth's centre; nor if the Earth were in the centre, is it a centre itself, but a body around a centre. ”

“ Besides, to observe the altitude on both sides of the meridian is just as expeditious as to observe on one side only and at the same time to find the elevation of the pole. And he who can take one altitude by the instrument can also take another; but if the one altitude be uncertain, then all the labour with the globe, numbers, sines and triangles is lost; nevertheless those exercises of ingenious mathematicians are to be commended. It is easy for anyone, if he stand on land, to learn the variation by accurate observations and suitable instruments, especially in a nearly upright sphere ”

“ For if among actual bodies one sees something move and breathe, and experience sensations, and be inclined and impelled by reason, will one not, knowing and seeing this, conclude that it is a man or something rather like a man, than that it is a stone or a stick? The loadstone far excels all other bodies known to us in virtues and properties pertaining to the common mother: but those properties have been far too little understood or realized by philosophers: for to its body bodies magnetical rush in from all sides and cleave to it, as we see them do in the case of the earth. ”

“ For if amber had moved towards its food, or if other bodies had inclined towards amber as towards provender, there would have been a diminution of the one which was devoured, just as there would have been a growth of the other which was sated. Then why should an attractive force of fire be looked for in amber? If the attraction existed from heat, why should not very many other bodies also attract, if warmed by fire, by the sun, or by friction? ”

“ In that body there is more of the stone than of iron; and therefore the iron, that it may not be subdued by the stone, desires the force and company of iron; that being not able to resist alone, it may be able by more help to defend itself.... The Loadstone draws not stones, because it wants them not, for there is stone enough in the body of it; and if one Loadstone draw another, it is not for the stone, but for the iron that is in it." As if in the loadstone the iron were a distinct body and not mixed up as the other metals in their ores! ”

“ The substance of the terrestrial globe withstands and sets itself against universal nature. Aristotle feigns for himself a system of philosophy founded on motions simple and compound, that the heavens revolve in a simple circle, its elements moving with a right motion, the parts of the earth seeking the earth in straight lines, falling on its surface at right angles, and tending together toward its centre, always, however, at rest therein; accordingly also the whole Earth remains immovable in its place, united and compacted together by its own weight. ”

“ The application of a loadstone for all sorts of headaches no more cures them (as some make out) than would an iron helmet or a steel cap. To give it in a draught to dropsical persons is an error of the ancients, or an impudent tale of the copyists, though one kind of ore may be found which, like many more minerals, purges the stomach; but this is due to some defect of that ore and not to any magnetick property. Nicolaus puts a large quantity of loadstone into his divine plaster, just as the Augsburgers do into a black plaster for fresh wounds and stabs ”

“ Since the Earth herself would not choose to endure this so miserable and horrid appearance on both her faces, she, by her magnetick astral genius, revolves in an orbit, that by a perpetual change of light there may be a perpetual alternation of things, heat and cold, risings and settings, day and night, morn and eve, noon and midnight. ”

“ 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 force penetrates even to the other extremity, not through its surface only, but through the interior and all through the middle. ”