by William Gilbert

“ The greater the distance from the æquinoctial, the stronger is the coition with the stone itself, and with any part of it, not with its pole alone. Yet pieces of iron are not raised up on account of some peculiar attracting force or a stronger combined force, but on account of that common directing or conforming and rotating force ”

“ Also just as a terrella attracts magnetick bodies variously with dissimilar forces, so also an iron snout placed on the stone obtains a different potency in proportion to the latitude, * just as a snout at L by its firmer connection resists a greater weight more stoutly than one at M, and at M than at N. But neither does the snout raise the spike to the perpendicular except at the poles, as is shown in the figure. A snout at L may hold and lift from the earth two ounces of iron in one piece ”