of these streams at the Equator divers Rivolets of Atomes of each Pole are continuated from one Pole to the other 4. Of these Atomes incorporated with some fit matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone 5. This stone works by emanatitions joyn'd with agreeing streams that meet them in the air and in fine it is a Loadstone 6. A Method for making experiences upon any subject 7. The Loadstones generation by Atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments observed in the stone it self 8. Experiments to prove that the Loadstone works by emanations meeting with agreeing streams CHAP. XXI Positions drawn out of the former doctrine and confirm'd by experimental proofs 1. The operations of the Loadstone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities 2. Objections against the former position answer'd 3. The Loadstone is imbu'd with his vertue from another body 4. The vertue of the loadstone is a double and not one simple virtue 5. The vertue of the Loadstone works more strongly in the Poles of it than in any other part 6. The loadstone sends forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kinds and each kind is strongest in that hemisphere through whose polary parts they issue out 7. Putting two loadstones within the sphere of one another every part of one loadstone doth not agree with every part of the other loadstone 8. Concerning the declination and other respects of a needle towards the loadstone it touches 9. The vertue of the loadstone goes from end to end in lines almost parallel to the axis 10. The virtue of a loadstone is not perfectly spherical though the stone be such 11. The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadstone is to make an union betwixt the attractive and the attracted bodies 12. The main Globe of the earth not a loadstone 13. The loadstone is generated in all parts or climates of the earth 14. The conformity betwixt the two motions of magnetick things and of heavy things CHAP. XXII A solution of certain Problems concerning the Loadstone and a short summ of the whole doctrine touching it 1. Which is the North and which the South Pole of a loadstone 2. Whether any bodies besides magnetick ones be attractive 3. Whether an iron placed perpendicularly towards the earth doth get a magnetical virtue of pointing towards the North or towards the South in that end that lies downwards 4. Why loadstones affect iron better than one another 5. Gilbert's reason refuted touching a capped loadstone that takes up more iron than one not capped and an iron impregnated that in some case draws more strongly than the stone it self 6. Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted 7. The Authours solution to the former questions 8. The reason why in the former case a lesser Load stone draws the interjacent iron from the greater 9. Why the variation of a touched needle from the North is greater the nearer you go to the Pole 10. Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may at one time vary more from the North and at another time lesse 11. The whole doctrine of the load stone summ'd up in short CHAP. XXIII A description of two sorts of Living creatures Plants and Animals and how they are framed in common to perform vital motion 1. The connexion of the following Chapters with the precedent 2. Concerning several compositions of mix'd bodies 3. Two sorts of living creatures 4. An engin to express the first sort of living creatures 5. An other engin by which may be express'd the second sort of living creatures 6. The two former enginâ— and some other compâ—risons upplyed express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of living creatures 7. How plants are fram'd 8. How Sensitive creatures are form'd CHAP. XXIV A more particular survey of the generation of Animals in which is discover'd what part of the animal is first generated 1. The opinion that the seed contains formally every part of the parent 2. The former opinion rejected 3. The Authours opinion of this question 4. Their opinion refuted who hold that every thing contains formally all things 5. The Authours opinion concerning the generation of Animals declared and confirm'd 6. That one substance is chang'd into another 7. Concerning the â—atching of Chickens and the generation of other animals 8. From whence it â—ppens that the defi◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—scences of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seen in their children 9. The difference between the Authours opinion and the former 10. That the heart is iâ—ued with the generalâ— spâ—ific virtues of the whole body 〈◊〉 confirm'd the doctrine of the two former paragraphs 11. That the heart is the first part generated in a living creature CHAP. XXV How a Plant or Animal comes to that Figure it hath 1. That the Figure of an Animal is produced by ordinary second causes as well as any other corporeal effect 2. That the several figures of bodies proceed from a defect in one of the three dimensions caused by the concurrence of accidental causes 3. The former doctrine is confirmed by several instances 4. The same doctrine apply'd to Plants 5. The same doctrine declared in leafs of trees 6. The same apply'd to the bodies of Animals 7. In what sense the Authour admits of Vis formatrix CHAP. XXVI How motion begins in Living creatures And of the Motion of the Heart Circulation of the Blood Nutrition Augmentation and corruption or death 1. From whence proceeds the primary motion and growth in Plants 2. Monsieur des Cartes his opinion touching the motion of the heart 3. The former opinion rejected 4. The Authours opinion concerning the motion of the heart 5. The motion of the heart depends originally of its fibers irrigated by bloud 6. An objection answer'd against the former doctrine 7. The circulation of the bloud and other effects that follow the motion of the heart 8. Of Nutrition 9. Of Augmentation 10. Of death and sickness CHAP. XXVII Of the motions of Sense and of the Sensible Qualities in gegeral in particular of those which belong to Touch Tast and Smelling 1. The connexion of the subsequent Chapters with the precedent 2. Of the senses and sensible qualities in general And of the end for which they serve 3. Of the sense of touching and that both it and its qualities are bodies 4. Of the tast and its qualities that they are bodies 5. That the smell and its qualities are real bodies 6. Of the conformity betwixt the two senses of smelling and tasting 7. The reason why the sense of smelling is not so perfect in man as in beasts with a wonderful history of a man who could wind sent as well as any beast CHAP. XXVIII Of the sense of Hearing and of the sensible quality Sound 1. Of the sense of hearing and that sound is purely motion 2. Of divers arts belonging to the sense of hearing all which confirm that sound is nothing but motion 3. The same is confirmed by the effects caused
the air in this our Hemisphere is as it were strew'd over and sow'd with abundance of Northern atoms and that some brooks of them are in station others in a motion of retrogradation back to their own North Poles the Southern atoms which coming upon them at the Equator do not only press in among them wherever they can find admittance but also go on forwards to the North Poles in several files by themselvs being driven that way by the same accidental causes which make the others retire back seizing in their way upon the northern ones in such manner as we described in filtration and therby creeping along by them wherever they find them standing stil and going along with them wherever they find them going back must of necessity find passage in great quantites towards and even to the North Pole though some parts of them will ever and anon be check'd in this their journey by the main current prevailing over some accidental one and so be carried back again to the Equator whose line they had crossed And this affect cannot choose but be more or less according to the seasons of the year For when the Sun is in the Tropick of Capricorn the southern atoms will flow in much more abundance and with far greater speed into the Torrid Zone then the northern atoms can by reason of the Suns approximation to the South and his distance from the North Pole since he works faintest where he is furthest off and therfore from the North no more emanations or Atoms will be drawn but such as are most subtilised and duly prepared for that course And since only these selected bands do now march towards the Equator their files must needs be thinner then when the Suns being in the Equator or Tropick of Cancer wakens and musters up all their forces And consequently the quiet parts of air between their files in which like Atoms are also scatter'd are the greater wherby the advenient Southern Atoms have the larger filter to climb up by And the like happens in the other Hemisphere when the Sun is in the Tropick of Cancer as who will bestow the pains to compare them will presently see Now then let us consider what these two streams thus incorporated must of necessity do in the surface or upper parts of the Earth First 't is evident they must needs penetrate a pretty depth into the Earth for so freezing perswades us and much more the subtile penetration of divers more spiritual bodies of which we have sufficiently discoursed above Now let us conceive that these steams find a body of a convenient density to incorporate themselvs in in the way of density as we see fire doth in iron and in other dense bodies and this not for an hour or two as happens in fire but for years as I have been told that in the extreme cold hills in the Peak in Darbyshire happens to the dry Atoms of cold which are permanently incorporated in water by long continual freezing and so make a kind of Chrystal In this case certainly it must come to pass that this body will become in a manner wholly of the nature of these steams which being drawn from the Poles that abound in cold and driness for others that have not these qualities do not contribute to the intended effect the body is aptest to become a stone for so we see that cold and drought turns the superficial parts of the earth into stones rocks accordingly wherever cold dry winds reign powerfully all such Countries are mainly rocky Now then let us suppose this stone to be taken out of the earth and hang'd in the air or set conveniently on some little pin or otherwise put in liberty so as a small impulse may easily turn it any way it will in this case certainly follow that the end of the stone which in the earth lay towards the North pole will now in the air convert it self in the same manner towards the same point and the other end which lay towards the South turn by consequence to the South I speak of these Countries which lie between the Equator and the North in which of necessity the stream going from the North to the Equator must be stronger then the opposite one Now to explicate how this is done Suppose the stone hang'd East and West freely in the air the steam which is drawn from the North Pole of the earth ranges along by it in its course to the Equator and finding in the stone the South steam which is grown innate to it very strong it must needs incorporate it self with it and most by those parts of the steam in the stone which are strongest which are they that come directly from the North of the stone by which I mean that part of the stone that lay Northward in the Earth and that still looks to the North pole of the Earth now it is in the air And therfore the great floud of atoms coming from the North pole of the earth will incorporate it self most strongly by the North end of the stone with the little floud of Southern atomes it findes in the stone for that end serves for the coming out of the Southern atomes and sends them abroad as the South end doth the Northern steam since the steams come in at one end and go out at the other From hence we may gather that this stone will joyn and cleave to its attractive whenever it happens to be within the Sphere of its activity Besides if by some accident it should happen that the atomes or steams which are drawn by the Sun from the Polewards to the Equator should come stronger from some part of the earth which is on the side hand of the Pole then from the very Pole it self in this case the stone will turn from the Pole towards that side Lastly whatever this stone will do towards the Pole of the earth the very same a lesser stone of the same kind will do towards a greater And if there be any kind of other substance that has participation of the nature of this stone such a substance will behave it self towards this stone in the same manner as such a stone behaves it self towards the earth all the Phenomens whereof may be the more plainly observed if the stone be cut into the form of the earth And thus we have found a perfect delineation of the Loadstone from its causes For there is no man so ignorant of the nature of a Loadstone but he knows that the properties of it are to tend towards the North to vary somtimes to joyn with another Loadstone to draw iron to it and such like whose causes you see deliver'd But to come to experimental proofs and observations on the Loadstone by which it will appear that these causes are well esteem'd and apply'd we must be beholding to that admirable searcher of the nature of the Loadstones Dr. Gilbert by means of
by its Equator And consequently it is impossible that its sphere of activity should be perfectly spherical Nor doth Cabeus his experience move us to conceive the loadstone hath a greater strength to retain an iron laid upon it by its Equator then by its Poles for to justifie his assertion he should have tried it in an iron wire that were so short as the poles could not have any notable operation upon the ends of it since otherwise the force of retaining it wil be attributed to the Poles according to what we have above deliver'd and not to the Equator The eighth position is that The intention of nature in all the operations of the Loadstone is to make an union betwixt the attractive and the atracted â—bodies Which is evident out of the sticking of them together as also out of the violence wherwith iron comes to a Loadstone which when it is drawn by a powerful one is so great that through the force of the blow hitting the stone it will rebound back and then fall again to the stone And in like manner a needle upon a pin if a Loadstone be set near it turns with so great a force towards the pole of the stone that it goes beyond it and coming back again the celerity wherwith it moves maketh it retire it self too far on the other side and so by many undulations at last it comes to rest directly opposite to the pole Likewise by the declination by means of which the iron to the stone or the stone to the earth approaches in such a disposition as is most convenient to joyn the due ends together And lastly out of the flying away of the contrary ends from one another which clearly is to no other purpose but that the due ends may come together And in general there is no doubt but ones going to another is instituted by the order of nature for their coming together and for their being together which is but a perseverance of their coming together The ninth position is that The nature of a Loadstone doth not sink deeply into the main body of the earth as to have the substance of its whole body be magnetical but only remans near the surface of it And this is evident by the inequality in virtue of the two ends for if this magnetick virtue were the nature of the whole body both ends would be equally strong For would the disposition of one of the ends be different from the disposition of the other Again there could be no variation of the tending towards the North for the bulk of the whole body would have a strength so eminently greater then the prominences and disparities of hils or seas as the varieties of these would be absolutely insensible Again if the motion of the Loadstone came from the body of the earth it would be perpetually from the center not from the Poles so there could be no declination more in one part of the earth then in another Nor would the Loadstone tend from North to South but from the centre to the circumference or rather from the circumference to the centre And so we may learn the difference between the loadstone and the earth in their attractive operations to wit that the earth doth not receive its influence from another body nor doth its magnetick virtue depend of another magnetick agent that impresses it into it which nevertheless is the most remarkable condition of a Loadstone Again the stongest vertue of the Loadstone is from pole to pole but the strongest virtue of the earth is from the centre upwards as appears by fireforks gaining a much greater magnetick strength in a short time then a Loadstone in a longer Neither can it be thence objected that the loadstone should therfore receive the earths influences more strongly from the centerwards then from the poles of the earth which by its operation and what we have discours'd of it is certain it doth not since the beds where Loadstones lie and are form'd be towards the bottome of that part or back of the earth which is imbued with magnetick virtue Again this virtue which we see in a Loadstone is substantial to it wheras the like virtue is but accidental to the earth by means of the Suns drawing the northern and southern exhalations to the Equator The last position is that The loadstone must be found over all the earth and in every country And so we see it is both because iron mines are found in some measure almost in all countries cause at least other sorts of the earth as we have declared of potearths cannot be wanting in any large extent of country which when they are baked and cool'd in due positions have this effect of the Loadstone and are of the nature of it And Dr. Gilbert shews that the loadstone is nothing else but the Ore of Steel or perfectest iron and that it is to be found of all colours and fashions and almost of all consistences So that we may easily conceive that the emanations of the Loadstone being every where as well as the causes of gravity the two motions of magnetick and weighty things both of them derive their origine from the same source I mean from the very same emanations coming from the earth which by a divers ordination of nature make this affect in the loadstone and that other in weighty things And who knows but that a like sucking to this which we have shew'd in magnetick things passes also in the motion of gravity in a word gravity bears a fair testimony in behalf of the magnetick force and the Loadstones working returns no mean verdict for the causes of gravity according to what we have delivered of them CHAP. XXII A Solution of certain Problemes concerning the Loadstone and a short sum of the whole doctrine touching it OUt of what is said upon this subject we may proceed to the Solution of certain questions or problemes which are or may be made in this matter And first of that which Dr. Gilbert disputes against all former writers of the Loadstone to wit which is the North and which the South pole of a stone Which seems to me only a question of the name for if by the name of North and South we understand that end of the stone which has that virtue that the North or South pole of the earth have then 't is certain that the end of the stone which looks to the South pole of the earth is to be called the North pole of the loadstone and contrariwise that which looks to the North is to be called the South pole of it But if by the names of North and South pole of the stone yoâ— mean those ends of it that lie and point to the North and South poles of the earth then you must reckon their poles contrariwise to the former account So that the terms being once defined there will remain no further controversie about the
point Dr. Gilbert seems also to have another controversie with all Writers to wit whether any bodies besides Magnetical ones be attractive Which he seems to deny all others to affirm But this also being fairly put will peradventure prove no controversie for the question is either in common of attraction or else in particular of such an attraction as is made by the loadone Of the first part there can be no doubt as we have declared above and is manifest betwixt gold and quicksilver when a man holding Gold in his mouth it draws to it the quicksilver that is in his body But for the attractive to draw a body to it self not wholly but one determinate part of the body drawn to one determinate part of the drawer is an attraction which for my part I cannot exemplifie in any other bodies but Magnetical ones A third question is Whether an iron that stands long unmoved in a window or any other part of a building perpendicularly to the earth contracts a Magnetical virtue of drawing or pointing towards the North in that end which looks downwards For Cabeus who wrote since Gilbert affirms it out of experience but either his experiment or his expression was defective For assuredly if the iron stands so in the Northern Hemisphere it will turn to the North and if in the Southern Hemisphere it will turn to the South for seeing the virtue of the loadstone proceeds from the earth and the earth has different tempers towards the North and toward the South pole as hath been already declared the virtue which comes out of the earth in the Northern Hemisphere will give to the end of the iron next it an inclination to the North pole and the earth of the Southern Hemisphere will yield the contrary disposition to the end which is nearest it The next Question is why a loadstone seems to love iron better then another loadstone The answer is because iron is indifferent in all its parts to receive the impression of a loadstone wheras another loadstone receives it only in a determinate part and therfore a loadstone draws iron more easily then it can another loadstone because it finds repugnance in the parts of another Loadstone unless it be exactly situated in a right position Besides iron seems to be compared to a Loadstone like a more humid body to a dryer of the same nature and the difference of male and female sexes in Animals manifestly shew the great appetence of conjunction between moisture and dryness when they belong to bodies of the same species Another question is that great one Why a Loadstone cap'd with steel takes up more iron then it would do if it were without that caping Another conclusion like this is that if by a Loadstone you take up an iron and by that iron a second iron and then pull away the second iron the first iron in some position will leave the Loadstone to stick to the second iron as long as the second iron is within the sphere of the Loadstones activity but if you remove the second out of that sphere then the first iron remaining within it though the other be out of it will leave the second and leap back to the Loadstone To the same purpose is this other conclusion that The greater the iron is which is entirely within the compass of the Loadstones virtue the more strongly the Loadstone will be moved to it and the more forcibly stick to it The reasons of all these three we must give at once for they hang all upon on string And in my conceit neither Gilbert nor Galileo have hit upon the right As for Gilbert he thinks that in iron there is originally the virtue of the loadstone but that it is as it were asleep till by the touch of the Loadstone it be awaked and set on work and therfore the virtue of bath joyn'd together is greater then the virtue of the Loadstone alone But if this were the reason the virtue of the iron would be greater in every regard and not only in sticking or in taking up wheras himself confesses that a cap'd stone draws no further then a naked stone nor hardly so far Besides it would continue its virtue out of the sphere of activity of the loadstone which it doth not Again seeing that if you compare them severally the virtue of the Loadstone is greater then the virtue of the iron why should not the middle iron stick closer to the stone then to the further iron which must of necessity have less virtue Galileo yeelds the cause of this effect that when an iron touches an iron there are more parts which touch one another then when a Loadstone touches the iron First because the Loadstone hath generally much impurity in it and therfore divers parts of it have no virtue wheras iron by being melted hath all its parts pure and secondly because iron can be smooth'd and polish'd more then a Loadstone can be and therfore its superficies touches in a manner with all its parts whereas divers parts of the stones superficies cannot touch by reason of its ruggedness And he confirms his opinion by experience for if you put the head of a needle to a bare stone and the point of it to an iron and then pluck away the iron the needle will leave the iron and stick to the stone but if you turn the needle the other way it will leave the stone and stick to the iron Out of which he infers that 't is the multitude of parts which causes the closs and strong sticking And it seems he found the same in the caping of his Loadstones for he used flat irons for that purpose which by their whole plane did take up other irons wheras Gilbert cap'd his with convex irons which not applying themselvs to other irons so strongly or with so many ports as Galileo's did would not by much take up so great weights as his Nevertheless it seems not to me that his answer is sufficient or that his reasons convince For we are to consider that the virtue which he puts in the iron must according to his own supposition proceed from the Loadstone and then what imports it whether the superficies of the iron which touches another iron be so exactly plain or no or that the parts of it be more solid then the parts of the stone For all this conduces nothing to make the virtue greater then it was since no more virtue can go from one iron to the other then goes from the Loadstone to the first iron and if this virtue cannot tie the first iron to the Loadstone it cannot proceed out of this virtue that the second iron be tyed to the first Again if a paper be put betwixt the cap and another iron it doth not hinder the magnetical virtue from passing through it to the iron but the virtue of taking up more weight then the naked stone was able to do is therby
diffused in many several branches peradventure it will not be displeasing to the Reader to see the whole nature of the loadstone sum'd up in short Let him then cast his eyes upon one effect of it very easie to be tried and acknowledg'd by all writers though we have not as yet mention'd it 'T is that a knife drawn from the pole of a loadstone towards the Equator if you hold the point towards the pole gains a respect to one of the poles but contrariwise if the point of the knife be held towards the Equator and be thrust the same way it was drawn before that is towards the Equator it gains a respect towards the contrary pole 'T is evident out of this experience that the virtue of the loadstone is communicated by way of streams and that in it there are two contrary streams for otherwise the motion of the knife this way or that why could not change the efficacity of the same parts of the loadstone 'T is likewise evident that these contrary streams come from the contrary ends of the loadstone As also that the virtues of them both are in every part of the stone Likewise that one loadstone must of necessity turn certain parts of it self to certain parts of another loadstone nay that it must go and joyn to it according to the laws of attraction which we have above deliver'd and consequently that they must turn their disagreeing parts away from one another and so one loadstone seem to fly from another if they be so apply'd that their disagreeing parts be kept still next to one another for in this case the disagreeing and the agreeing parts of the same loadstone being in the same straight line one loadstone seeking to draw his agreeing part near to that part of the other loadstone which agrees with him must of necessity turn away his disagreeing parts to give way to his agreeing parts to approach nearer And thus you see that the flying from one another of two ends of two loadstones which are both of the same denomination as for example the two South ends or the two North ends doth not proceed from a pretended antipathy between those two ends but from the attraction of the agreeing ends Furthermore the earth having to a Loadstone the nature of a Loadstone it follows that a Loadstone must necessarily turn it self to the poles of the earth by the same laws and consequently must tend to the North must vary from the North must incline towards the centre and must be affected with all such accidents as we have deduced of the Loadstone And lastly seeing that iron is to a Loadstone a fit matter for it to impress its nature in and easily retains that magnetike virtue the same effects that follow between two Loadstones must necessarily follow between a Loadstone and a piece of iron fitly proportionated in their degrees excepting some little particularities which proceed out of the naturalness of the magneticke virtue to a Loadstone more then to iron And thus you see the nature of the Load-stone sum'd up in gross the particular joynts and causes whereof you may find treated at large in the main discourse Wherin we have govern'd our selvs chiefly by the experiences that are recorded by Gilbert and Cabeus to whom we remit our Reader for a more ample declaration of particulars CHAP. XXIII A description of the two sorts of Living Creatures Plants and Animals and how they are framed in common to perform vital motion HItherto we have endeavour'd to follow by a continual third all such effects as we have met with among Bodies and to trace them in all their windings and drive them up to their very root original source for the nature of our subject having been yet very common hath not exceeded the compass and power of our search inquiry to descend to the chief circumstances and particulars belonging to it And indeed many of the conveyance wherby the operations we have discoursed of are performed be so secret and abstruse as they that Look into them with less heedfulness and judgment then such a matter requires are too apt to impute them to mysterious causes above the reach of humane nature to comprehend and to calumniate them of being wrought by occult and specifick qualities wherof no more reason could be given then if the effects were infused by Angelical hands without assistance of inferiour bodies which uses to be the last refuge of ignorant men who not knowing what to say and yet presuming to say something fall often upon such expressions as neither themselvs nor their hearers understand but if they be well scan'd imply contradictions Therfore we deem'd it a kind of necessity to strain our selvs to prosecute most of such effects even to their notional connexions with Rarity and Density And the rather because it hath not been our luck yet to meet with any that has had the like design or done any considerable matter to ease our pains VVhich cannot but make the Readers journey somwhat tedious to him to follow all our steps by reason of the ruggedness and untrodenness of the paths we have walk'd in But now the effects we shall henceforward meddle with grow so particular and swarm into such a vast multitude of several little joynts and wreathy labyrinths of nature as were impossible in so summary a treatise as we intend to deliver the causes of every one of them exactly which would require both large discourses and abundance of experiences to acquit our selvs as we ought of such a task Nor is there a like need of doing it as formerly for as much as concerns our design since the causes of them are palpably material and the admirable artifice of them consists only in the Dedalean and wonderful-ingenious ordering and ranging them one with another VVe shall therfore intreat our Reader from this time forwards to expect only the common sequel of those particular effects out of the principles already laid And when some shall occur that may peradventure seem at first sight enacted immediately by a virtue spiritual and that proceeds indivisibly in a different strain from the ordinary process which we see in bodies and bodily things that is by the virtues of rarity and density working by local motion we hope he will be satisfied at our hands if we lay down a method and trace out a course wherby such events and operations may follow out of the principles we have laid Though peradventure we shall not absolutely convince that every effect is done just as we set it down in every particular and that it may not as well be done by some other disposing of parts under the same general scope for 't is enough for our turn if we shew that such effects may be perform'd by corporeal agents working as other bodies do without confining our selvs to an exactness in every link of the long chain that must be wound up in the performance
Of the great effects of Rarefaction 4. The first manner of condensation by heat 5. The second manner of condensation by cold 3. That Ice is not water rarifiâ—d but condensed 7. How wind snow and hail are made and wind by rain allayed 8. How parts of the same or divers bodies are joyned more strongly together by condensation 9. Vacuities cannot be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstanding receive more of another 10. The true reason of the former effect 11. The reason why bodies of the same nature jâ—yn more easily together then others 1. What attraction is and from whence it proceeds 1. The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhors from vacuity 3. The true rea son of attraction 4. Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soever 5. The doctrine touching the attraction of water in Syphons 6. That the Syphon doth not prove water to weigh in its own orb 7. Concerning attraction caused by fire 8. Concerning attraction made by virtue of hot bodies amulets c. 9. The natural reason given for divers operations esteemed by some to be magical 1. What is Filtration and how it is effected 2. What causes the water in filtration to ascend 3. Why the filter will not drop unless the label hang lower then the water 4. Of the motion of Râ—stitution and why some bodies stand bent others not 5. Why some bo dies return only in part to their natural figure others entirely 6. Concerning the nature of those bodies which shrink and stretch 7. How great wonderful effects proceed from smal plain and simple principles 8. Concerning Electrical at action and the causes of it 6. Cabeus his opinion reâ—uted concerning the cause of Electrical motions 1. The extreme heat of the Sun under the Zodiack draws a stream of air from each pole into the Torrid Zone * Chap. 18. Sect. 7. 2. The Atoms of these two streams coming together are apt to incorporate with one another 3. By the meeting and mingling together of these streams at the Equator divers rivolets of Atoms of each Pole are continuated from one Pole to the other 4. Of these Atoms incorporated with some fit matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone 5. This stone works by emanations joyned with agreeing streams that meet them in the air and in fine it is a Loadstone 6 A methode for making experiences on any subject 7. The Loadstones generation by atoms flowing from both Poles is confirmd by experiments observ'd in the stone it self 8. Experiments to prove that the Loadstone works by emanations meeting with agreeing streames 1. The operations of the loadstone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities 2. Objections against the former position answer'd 3. The Loadstone is imbued with his virtue from another body 4 The virtue of the Loadstone is a double and not one simple virtue 5. The virtue of the Loadstone works more strongly in the poles of it then in any other part 6. The loadstone sends forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kindâ— and each kind is strongest in that Hemisphere through whose polary parts they issue out 7. Putting two loadstones within the sphere of one another every part of one loadstone doth not agree wâ—th every part of the other loadstone 8. Concetning the declination and other respects of a needle towards the loadstone it touches 8. The virtue of the Loadstone goes from end to end in lines almost parallel to the Axis 10. The virtue of the Loadstone is not perfectly spherical though the stone be such 11. The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadstone is to make an union betwixt the attractive and attracted bodies 12. The main globe of the earth is not a Loadstone 13. The loadstone is generated in all parts or Climâ—t's of the earth 14. The conformity betwixt the two motions of magnetick things and of heavy things 1. Which is the North and which the South Pole of a Loadstone 2. Whether any bodies besides magnetick ones be attractive 3. Whether an iron placed perpendicularly towards the earth gets a magnetical virtue of pointing towards the north or towards the south in that end that lies downwards 4. Why loadstones affect iron better than one another 5. Gilberts reason refuted touching a cap'd Loadstone that takes up more iron then one not cap'd and an iron impregnated that in some case draws more strongly then the stone it self Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted 7. The Authors solution to the former questions 8. The reason why in the former case a lesser Loadstones draws the interjacent iron from the greater 9. Why the variation of a touched needle from the North is greater the nearer you go to the Pole 10. Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may it one time vary more fâ—om the North and at another time less 11. The whâ—le doctrine of the loâ—dstone sum'd up in short 1. The connexion of the following Chapters with the precedent ones 2. Concerning several compositions of mixed bodies 3. Two sorts of Living Creatures 4. An engine to express the first sort of living creatures 5. Another Engine by which may be expressed the second sort of living creatures 4. The two former engines and some other comparisons applied to express the two several sorts of living creatures 7. How plants are framed 8. How Sensitive Creatures are formed 1. The opinion that the seed contains formally every part of the parent 2. The former opinion rejected 3. The Authours opinion of this question 4. Their opinion refuted who hold that every thing contains formally all things 5. The Authors opinion concerning the generation of Animals declared and confirm'd That one substance is changed into another 7. Concerning the hatching of Chickens and the generation of the other Animals 8. From whence it happens that the deficiences or excresences of the parents body are often seen in their children 9. The difference between the Authors opinion anâ—â—he former 〈◊〉 10 That the heart is imbued with the general specifike vertues of the whole body wherby is confirm'd the doctrine of the two former Paragraphes 11 That the heart is the first part generated in a living creatures 1. That the figure of an Animal is produced by ordinary second causes as well as any other corporeal effect 2. That the several figures of bodies proceed from a defect in one of three dimensions caused by the circumference of accidental causes 3. The former doctrine is confirmd by several instances 4. The same doctrine applyed to plants 4. The same doctrine declared in leaves of trees 16. The same applied to the bodies of Animals 7. In what sense the Author admits of vis formatrix 1. From whence proceeds the primary motion growth in Plants 2. Mr. des Cartes his opinion touching the motion of the heart 3. The former opinion rejected 4. The Authors opinion
cranies then the wide channel it streams in it will turn out of its straight way to glide along there where it findes an easier and more declive bed to tumble in so these atoms will infallibly deturn themselvs from their direct course to pass through such a stone as far as their greater conveniency leads them And what we have said of these atoms which from the Poles range through the vast sea of air to the Equator is likewise to be appli'd to those atoms which issue out of the stone so that we may conclude that if they meet with any help which may convey them on with more speed and vigour then whiles they stream directly forwards they will likewise deturn themselvs from directly forwards to take that course And if the stone it self be hang'd so nicely that a less force is able to turn it about then is requisite to turn awry out of its course the continued stream of atoms which issues from the stone in this case the stone it self must needs turn towards that stream which climbing and filtring it self along the stones stream draws it out of its course in such sort as the nose of a Weather-cock buts it self into the wind Now then it being known that the strongest stream comes directly from the North in the great earth and that the Southern stream of the Terrella or Loadstone proportion'd duly by nature to incorporate with the North stream of the earth issues out of the north end of the stone it follows plainly that when a Loadstone is situated at liberty its North and must necessarily turn towards the North pole of the World And it will likewise follow that whenever such a stone meets with another of the same nature and kind they must comport themselvs to one another in like sort that is if both of them be free and equal they must turn themselvs to or from one another according as they are situated in respect of one another So that if their axis be parallel and the South pole of the one and the North of the other look the same way they will send proprtionate and greeing streams to one another from their whole bodies that will readily mingle and incorporate with one another without turning out of their way or seeking any shorter course or chāging their respects to one another But if the poles of the same denomination look the same way and the loadstones do not lie so as to have their axis parallel but that they incline to one another then they will work themselvs about till they grow by their opposite poles into a straight line for the same reason as we have shew'd of a loadstones turning to the pole of the earth But if only one of the loadstones be free and the other fixed and that they lie inclined as in the former case then the free stone will work himself till his pole be opposite to that part of the fixed stone from whence the stream which agrees with him issues strōgest for that streā is to the free loadstone as the Northern streā of the earth is to a loadstone compared to the earth But withal we must take notice that in this our discourse we abstract from other accidents and particularly from the influence of the earths streams into the loadstones which will cause great variety in these cases if they lie not due North South when they begin to work And as loadstones and other magnetick bodies thus of necessity turn to one another when they are both free and if one of them be fast'ned the other turns to it so likewise if they be free to progressive motion they must by a like necessity and for the same reason come together and joyn themselves to one another And if only one of them be free that must remove it self to the other for the same vertue that makes them turn which is the strength of the steam will likewise in due circumstances make them come together by reason that the steams which climbe up one another by the way of filtration and thereby turn the bodies of the stones upon their centers when they are only free to turn must likewise draw the whole bodies of the stones entirely out of their places and make them joyn when such a total motion of the body is an effect that requires no more force than the force of conveying vigorously the streams of both the Magnetick bodies into one another that is when there is no such impediment standing in the way of the Magnetick bodies motion but that the celerity of the atomes motion mingling with one another is able to overcome it For then it must needs do so and the magnetick body by natural coherence to the steam of atomes in which it is involved follows the course of the steam in such sort as in the example we have heretofore upon another occasion given of an eggs-shell fill'd with dew the Sun-beams converting the dew into smoke and raising up that smoke or steam the eggs-shell is likewise rais'd up for company with the steam that issues from it And for the same reason it is that the Load-stone draws iron For iron being of a nature apt to receive and harbor the steams of a Loadstone it becomes a weak loadstone and works towards a loadstone as a weaker Loadstone would do so moves towards a Loadstone by the means we have now described And that this conformity between iron and the Loadstone is the true reason of the Loadstones drawing iron is clear out of this that a Loadstone will take up a greater weight of pure iron then it will of impure or drossie Iron or of Iron and some other mettal joyn'd together and that it will draw further through a slender long Iron then in the free open air all which are manifest signs that iron co-operates with the force which the Loadstone grafts in it And the reason why iron comes to a loadstone more efficaciously then another loadstone doth is because loadstones generally are more impure then iron is as being a kind of Oar or Mine of Iron and have other extraneous and Heterogeneal natures mix'd with them whereas iron receives the loadstones operation in its whole substance CHAP. XXI Positions drawn out of the former Doctrine and confirm'd by experimental proofs THe first Position is that The working of the loadstone being throughout according to the tenour of the operation of bodies may be done by bodies and consequently is not done by occult or secret qualities Which is evident out of this that a greater loadstone has more effect then a lesser and that if you cut away part of a loadstone part of his vertue is likewise taken from him and if the parts be join'd again the whole becomes as strong as it was before Again if a loadstone touch a longer iron it gives it less force then if it touch a shorter nay the vertue in any part is sensibly lesser according as it is further from
to the iron though the other steam be never so great yet it cannot draw more then according to the proportion of its Antagonists coming from the iron Wherfore seeing the two steams betwixt the iron and the little Loadstone are more proportionable to one another and the steam coming out of the little loadstone is notably greater then the steam going from the iron to the greater Loadstone the conjunction must be made for the most part to the little loadstone And if this discourse doth not hold in the former part of the Probleme betwixt a second iron and Loadstone it is supplyed by the former reason which we gave for that particular purpose The third case depends also of this solution for the bigger an iron is so many more parts it hath to suck up the influence of the Loadstone and consequently doth it therby the more greedily and therfore the Loadstone must be carried to it more violently and when they aâ—e joyn'd stick more strongly The sixth question is Why the variations of the Needle from the true North in the Northern Hemisphere are greater the nearer you go to the Pole and lesser the nearer you approach to the Equator The reason wherof is plain in our doctrine For considering that the magnetick virtue of the earth streams from the North towards the Equator it follows of necessity that if there be two streams of magnetick flowrs issuing from the North one of them precisely from the pole the other from a part of the earth near the pole that the stream coming from the point by side the Pole be but a little the stronger of the two there will appear very little differences in their several operations after they have had a long space to mingle their emanations together which therby join and grow as it were into one stream wheras the nearer you come to the Pole the more you will find them severed and each of them working by its own virtue And very near the point which causes the variation each stream works singly by it self and therfore here the point of variation must be master and will carry the needle strongly to his course from the due North if his stream be never so little more efficacious then the other Again a line drawn from a point of the Earth wide of the Pole to a point of the Meridian near the Equator makes a less angle then a line drawn from the same point of the Earth to a point of the same Meridian nearer the Pole wherfore the variation being esteem'd by the quantities of the said angles it must needs be greater near the Pole then near the Equator though the cause be the same But because it may happen that in the parts near the Equator the variation may proceed from some piece of land not much more northerly then where the needle is but that it bears rather Easterly or Westerly from it and yet Gilbert's assertion goes universally when he says the variations in Southern regions are less then in Northern ones we must examine what may be the reason therof And presently the generation of the Loadstone shews it plainly For seeing the nature of the Loadstone proceeds out of this that the Sun works more upon the Torrid Zone then upon the poles and that his too strong operation is contrary to the Loadstone as being of the nature of fire it follows evidently that the lands of the Torrid Zone cannot be so magnetical generally speaking as the polar lands are and by consequence that a lesser land near the Pole will have a greater effect then a larger continent near the Equator and likewise a land further off towards the Pole will work more strongly then a nearer land which lyes towards the Equator The seventh question is Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may at one time vary more from the true North point and at another time less In which Gilbert was resolute for the negative part but our latter Mathematicians are of another mind Three experiences were made neer London in three divers years The two first 42 years distant from one another and the third 12 years distant from the second And by them it is found that in the space of 54 years the Loadstone hath at London diminsh'd his variation from the North the quantity of 7 degrees and more But so that in the latter years the diminution hath sensibly gone faster then in the former These observations peradventure are but little credited by Strangers but we who know the worth of the men that made them cannot mistrust any notable errour in them for they were very able Mathematicians and made their observations with very great exactness and there were several judicious witnesses at the making of them as may be seen in Mr. Gillebrand's print concerning this subject And divers other particular persons confirm the same whose credit though each single might peradventure be slighted yet all in body make a great accession We must therfore cast about to find what may be the cause of an effect so paradox to the rest of the doctrine of the Loadstone for seeing that no one place can stand otherwise to the North of the earth at one time then at another how it is possible the needle should receive any new variation since all variation proceeds out of the inequality of the earth But when we consider that this effect proceeds not out of the main body of the earth but only out of the bark of it and that its bark may have divers tempers not as yet discover'd to us out of whose variety the influence of the earthy parts may be divers in respect of one certain place 't is not impossible but that such variation may be especially in England which Island lying open to the North by a great and vast Ocean may receive more particularly then other places the special influences and variation of the weather that happen in those Northeastern countreys from whence this influence comes to us If therfore there should be any cours of weather whose period were a hundred years for example or more or lesse and so might easily pass unmarked this variation might grow out of such a cours But in so obscure a thing we have already hazarded to guess too much And upon the whole matter of the Loadstone it serves our turn if we have proved as we conceive we have done fully that its motions which appear so admirable do not proceed from an occult quality but that the causes of them may be reduced to local motion and all perform'd by such corporeal instruments and means though peradventure more intricately disposed as all other effects are among bodies Whose ordering and disposing and particular progress there is no reason to despair of finding ouâ— would men but carefully apply themselvs to that work upon solid principles and with diligent experiences But because this matter has been very long and scatteringly
whom and Dr. Harvey our Nation may claim even in this latter age as deserved a crown for solid Philosophical learning as for many ages together it hath done formerly for acute and subtile speculations in Divinity But before I fall to particulars I think it worth warning my Reader how this Great Man arrived to discover so much of Magnetical Philosophy that he likewise if he be desirous to search into nature may by imitation advance his thoughts and knowledge that way In short then all the knowledg he got of this subject was by forming a little Loadstone into the shape of the earth By which means he compassed a wonderful design which was to make the whole globe of the earth maniable for he found the properties of the whole earth in that little body which he therfore called a Terrella or little earth and which he could manage and try experiences on at his will And in like manner any man that has an aim to advance much in natural Sciences must endeavour to draw the matter he enquires of into some smal model or into some kind of manageable method which he may turn and wind as he pleases and then let him be sure if he hath a competent understanding that he will not miss of his mark But to our intent the first thing we are to prove is that the Loadstone is generated in such sort as we have described For proof wherof the first ground we will lay shall be to consider how in divers other effects it is manifest that the differences of being exposed to the North or to the South cause very great variety in the same thing as hereafter we shall have occasion to touch in the barks and grains of trees and the like Next we find by experience that this virtue of the Loadstone is receivd into other bodies that resemble its nature by heatings and coolings for so it passes in iron bars which being throughly heated and then laid to cool North and South are therby imbued with a Magnetick virtue heat opening their bodies and disposing them to suck in such atoms as are convenient to their nature that flow to them whiles they are cooling So that we cannot doubt but convenient matter fermenting in its warm bed under the earth becomes a Loadstone by the like sucking in of affluent streams of a like complexion to the former And it fares in like manner with those fiery instruments as fireforks tongues shovels and the like which stand constantly upwards and downwards for they by being often heated and cool'd again gain a very strong verticity or turning to the Pole and indeed they cannot stand upwards and downwards so little a while but they will in that short space gain a manifest verticity and change it at every turning Now since the force and vigour of this verticity is in the end that stands downwards 't is evident that this effect proceeds out of an influence receiv'd from the earth And because in a Load-stone made into a globe or consider'd so to the end you may reckon Hemispheres in it as in the great earth either Hemisphere gives to a needle touch'd upon it not only the virtue of that Hemisphere where it is touch'd but likewise the vertue of the contrary Hemisphere we may boldly conclude that the virtue which a Loadstone is impregnated with in the womb or bed of the earth where it is form'd and grows proceeds as well from the contrary Hemisphere of the earth as from that wherin it lyes in such sort as we have above described And as we feel oftentimes in our own bodies that some cold we catch remains in us a long while after the taking it and somtimes seems even to change the nature of some part of our body into which it is chiefly enter'd and hath taken particular possession of so that whenever new atoms of the like nature again range about in the circumstant air that part so deeply affected with the former ones of-kin to these in a particular manner seems to rissent and attract them to it and to have its guests within it as it were waken'd and rous'd up by the strokes of the advenient ones that knock at their doors Even so but much more strongly by reason of the longer time and less hinderances we may conceive that the two virtues or atoms proceeding from the two different Hemisphere constitute a certain permanent and constant nature in the stone that imbibes them which then we call a Loadstone and is exceeding sensible as we shall hereafter declare of the advenience to it of new atoms a like in nature and complexion to those it is impregnated with And this virtue consisting in a kind of softer and tenderer substance then the rest of the stone becomes thereby subject to be consumed by fire From whence we may gather the reason why a Loadstone never recovers its magnetick virtue after it hath once lost it though iron doth for the humidity of iron is inseparable from its substance but the humidity of a Loadstone which makes it capable of this effect may be quite consumed by fire and so the stone may be left too dry for ever being capable of imbibing any new influence from the earth unless it be by a kind of new making it In the next place we are to prove that the Loadstone works in that manner we have shew'd For which end let us consider how the atoms that are drawn from each Pole and Hemisphere of the earth to the Equator making up their course by a manuduction of one another the hindermost cannot chose but still follow on after the formost And as it happens in filtration by a cotton cloath if some one part of the cotton have its disposition to the ascent of the water more perfect and ready then the other parts have the water will assuredly ascend faster in that part then in any of the rest so if the atoms find a greater disposition for their passage in any one part of the Medium they range through then in another they will certainly not fail of taking that way in greater abundance and with more vigour and strength then any other But 't is evident that when they meet with such a stone as we have described the helps by which they advance in their journey are notably encreas'd by the floud of atoms they meet coming out of that stone which being of the nature of their opposite pole they seise greedily upon them and therby pluck themselvs faster on like a Ferry man that draws on his boat the swiftlier the more vigourously he tâ—gs and pulls at the rope that lyes thwart the river for him to hale himself over by And therfore we cannot doubt but this floud of atoms streaming from the pole of the earth must needs pass through that stone with more speed and vigour then they can do any other way And as we see in the running of water if it meets with any lower
entring more particularly into it If a magnetick body lyes North and South 't is easie obvious to conceive that the streams coming from North and South of the world passing through the stone must needs excitate the virtue which is in it and carry a stream of it along with them that way they go But if it lies East West then the streams of North and South of the earth streaming along by the two poles of the stone are suck'd in by them much more weakly yet nevertheless sufficiently to give an excitation to the innate streams which are in the body of the stone to make them move on in their ordinary course The third position is that The virtue of the Loadstone is a double and not one simple virtue Which is manifest in an iron touch'd by a Loadstone for if you touch it only with one pole of the stone it will not be so strong and full of the magnetike virtue as if you touch one end of it with one pole and the other end of it with the other pole of the stone Again if you touch both ends of an iron with the same pole of the stone the iron gains its virtue at that end which was last touch'd changes its virtue from end to end as often as it is rub'd at contrary ends Again one end of the Loadstone or of iron touch'd will have more force on the one side of the Equator and the other end on the other side of it Again the variation on the one side of the Equator and the variation on the other side of it have different laws according to the different ends of the loadstone or of the needle which looks to those Poles Wherefore t is evident that there is a double virtue in the loadstone the one more powerful at one end of it the other at the other Yet these two virtues are found in every sensible part of the stone for cutting it at either end the virtue at the contrary end is also diminish'd and the whole loadstone that is left has both the same virtues in proportion to its bigness Besides cut the Loadstone how you will still the two poles remain in that line which lay under the Meridian when it was in the earth And the like is of the touched iron whose virtue still â—es along the line which goes straight according to the line of the Axis from the point where it was touch'd and at the opposite end constitutes the contrary pole The fourth position is that Though the virtue of the Loadstone be in the whole body Yet its virtue is more seen in the poles then in any other parts For by experience 't is found that a Loadstone of equal bulk works better and more efficaciously if it be in a long form then if it be in any other And from the middle line betwixt the two poles there comes no virtue if an iron be touch'd there but any part towards the pole the nearer it is to the pole the greater party it imparts Lastly the declination teaches us the same which is so much the stronger by how much it is nearer the pole The fifth position is that In the the loadstone there are emanations which issue not only at the poles and about them but also spherically round about the whole body in an orb from all parts of the superficies of it in such sort as happens in all other bodies whatever And these spherical emanations are of two kinds proportionable to the two polar emanations And the greatest force of each sort of them is in that Hemisphere where the Pole is at which they make their chief issue The reason of the first part of this position is because no particular body can be exempt from the Laws of all bodies and we have above declared that every physical body must of necessity have an orb of fluours or a sphere of activity about it The reason of the second part is that seeing these fluours proceed out of the very substance and nature of the loadstone they cannot choose but be found of both sorts in every part how little soever it be where the nature of the loadstone resides The reason of the third part is that because the polar emanations tend wholly towards the poles each of them to their proper pole it follows that in every Hemisphere both those which come from the contrary Hemisphere and those which are bred in that they go out at are all assembled in that Hemisphere and therefore of necessity it must be stronger in that kind of fluours then the opposite end is All which appears true in experience for if a long iron touches any part of that Hemisphere of a loadstone which tends to the North it gains at that end a virtue of tending likewise to the North and the same will be if an iron but hang loose over it And this may be confirm'd by a like experience of an iron bar in respect of the earth which hanging downwards in any part of our Hemisphere is imbued with the like inclination of drawing towards the North. The sixth position is that although every part of one loadstone do in it self agree with every part of another loadstone that is if each of these parts were divided from their wholes each of them made a whole by it self they might be so joyn'd together as they would agree nevertheless when the parts are in their two wholes they do not all of them agree together but of two loadstones only the poles of the one agree with the whole body of the other that is each pole with any part of the contrary Hemisphere of the other loadstone The reason of this is because the fluours which issue out of the stones are in certain different degrees in several parts of the entire loadstones wherby it happens that one loadstone can work by a determinate part of it self most powerfully upon the other if some determinate part of that other lie next it and not so well if any other part lies towards it And accordingly experience shews that if you put the pole of a loadstone towards the middle of a needle that is touch'd at the point the middle part of the needle will turn away and the end of it will convert it self to the pole of the loadstone The seventh position is that If a touched needle and a loadstone come together and touch one another in their agreeing parts whatever parts of them those be the line of the needles length will beÌ„d towards the pole of the stone excepting if they touch by the Equator of the stone the middle of the needle yet not so that if you draw out the line of the needles length it will go through the pole of the stone unless they touch by the end of the one and the pole of the other But if they touch by the Equator of the one and the middle of the other then the