by William Gilbert

Name: On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4.
Author: by William Gilbert

On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

Summary

“On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4.”, published in 1900, is a work by by William Gilbert. It explores elements such as Earth, poles and motion.

Quotes from On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (by William Gilbert)

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ 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. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ 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. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ The Earth is moved by her own primary form and natural desire, for the conservation, perfection, and ordering of its parts, toward things more excellent: and this is more likely than that the fixed stars, those luminous globes, as well as the Wanderers, and the most glorious and divine Sun, which are in no way aided by the Earth, or renewed, or urged by any virtue therein, should circulate aimlessly around the Earth, and that the whole heavenly host should repeat around the Earth courses never ending and of no profit whatever to the stars. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ But the Earth is not a Chaos nor disordered mass; but by reason of its astral virtue, it has boundaries which subserve the circular motion, poles not mathematical, an æquator not devised by imagination, meridians also and parallels; all of which we find permanent, certain and natural in the Earth: which by numerous experiments the whole magnetick philosophy sets forth. For in the earth there are poles set in fixed bounds, and at them the verticity mounts up on either side from the plane of the Earth's æquator, with forces which are mightier and præpotent from the common action of the whole ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ And if the Earth were not made to spin with a diurnal revolution, the Sun would ever hang over some determinate part with constant beams, and by long tarriance would scorch it, and pulverize it, and dissipate it, and the Earth would sustain the deepest wounds ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ Wherefore we, following an evident, sensible and tested cause, do know that the earth moves on its own poles, which are apparent to us by many magnetick demonstrations. For not only on the ground of its constancy, and its sure and permanent position, is the Earth endowed with poles and verticity: for it might be directed toward other parts of the universe, toward East or West or some other region. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ Thus the Earth seeks and re-seeks the Sun, turns away from him and pursues him, by her own wondrous magnetick virtue. Besides, it is not only from the Sun that evil would impend, if the Earth were to stay still and be deprived of solar benefit; but from the Moon also serious dangers would threaten. For we see how the ocean rises and swells beneath certain known positions of the Moon: And if there were not through the daily rotation of Earth a speedy transit of the Moon, the flowing sea would be driven above its level into certain regions, and many shores would be overwhelmed with huge waves. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ For all planets have a like motion Eastward according to the succession of the signs, whether Mercury and Venus revolve beneath the Sun, or around the Sun. That the Earth is capable of and fitted for moving circularly its parts show, which when separated from the whole are not only borne along with the straight movement taught by the Peripateticks, but rotate also. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ In other parts, all things would verily be frightful and stark with extreme cold; whence all high places would be very rough, unfruitful, inaccessible, covered with a pall of perpetual shades and eternal night. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ For in no third way can the apparent revolutions be explained. This day, then, which is called natural, is a revolution of some meridian of the Earth from Sun to Sun. It revolves indeed in an entire course, from a fixed star round to that star again. Those bodies which in nature are moved with a circular, æquable and constant motion, are furnished, in their parts, with various boundaries. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by William Gilbert, On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (1900)

“ But in no turnings-about of bodies, in none of the motions of the planets are there to be recognized, beheld, or assured to us by any reasoning any sensible or natural poles in the firmament, or in any Primum Mobile ”

by William Gilbert

Summary

Quotes from On the Magnet — Book VI. Chap. 4… (by William Gilbert)

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