we shall speak of the rest in other places CHAP. IV. The force of the stone is sent by a right line from North to South through the length of it BUt the two points we speak of are the end of the right line running through the middle of the stone from North to South if any man break the stone and break this line those ends of the division will presently be of another property and vertue and will be enemies one to the other which is a great wonder for these two points when they were joined together had the same force of turning to the pole but now being parted asunder one will turn to the North the other to the South keeping the same posture and position they had in the Mine where they were bred and the same happens in the least bits that are seen in the greatest load-stone For example let the rock of Load-stone be ABCD and let the line from North to South be AB if we shall cut the stone AB out of the rock the very line AB in the stone will represent the polar line from North to South But if we break the stone broad-wayes every little piece will keep its line Cut the stone AB broad-ways as CF there will be two stones ACD and EFB I say the stones cut through the line CD each of them will have its poles of the world In the stone AGD the North-pole will be A the South G. In the stone EFB the North will be H the South B and that is beyond all admiration that the points GH whilst the stone was but one were but one as being agreed together they had the same forces but when the stone is divided each part will hold its vertue and be quite contrary and at enmity for G alwayes turns to the South and H to the North and every bit will have its poles and if you fit the divided stones with boats A and H will turn to the North G and B to the South and the same will fall out if you divide AG and HB into many small pieces and if you afterwards join all these pieces together as they were their mutual discord of nature will be presently reconciled Wherefore Cardanus said false that the Load-stone draws where it hath but a thin cover and more in one part then another for it attracts onely from one certain point as it had its position before in the mines CHAP. V. That the polar line in the Loadstone is not stable but moveable BUt the like wonder of nature cannot but be admired amongst many that God hath made and therefore I would have no man ignorant thereof This polar line spoken of is not alwayes certain in the same place nor doth it stand alwayes firm but changes and takes the contrary positions but this is constant in it that it alwayes runs through the middle of the stone like a King that hath alwayes his Court or fort in the midst of his Country for consisting in the centre from whence the extream parts are as it were the circumference it can easily send its forces to all parts and defend it self But an example shall clear this Let the stone be AECF and let the line AC running through the length of it be the polar line we speak of wherein the force of it resides which runs from the North to the South-pole I say if you divide the stone in two pieces by the line AC that one piece may be AED the other BCF if they be taken asunder that the force of it doth not reside in the extream part of the line AD or BC but being divided in the middle the force is received in the middle of each stone and in the stone AED it will be GH and in BCF it will be IL which cannot be spoken without admiration that in a dead stone there should be a living vertue to move it self who is there unless he try it that will believe these things For as the line that stretcheth from North to South was in the prime so if you divide the stone into a thousand parts that force is sent into all those parts each of them holding its own line in the middle of it so if we shall divide the part AED into other parts and shall part the smallest of them what part soever is parted from its confines it will have that same lively force running long-ways through the middle of it and so it will be if you divide the stone into the smallest sand but the greater wonder is that if you joit all the parts together again as they were at first they will all have the same force united and that will retire into the middle of the stone CHAP. VI. That the force of North and South is vigorous in the points BUt what is more wonderful Though the force retreats to the middle of the stone yet it doth not send it self forth by the middle but by the extream parts of the stone and lies still in the middle as if it were asleep but it is awake in the end and there it comes forth But if a man break the stone he shall see it more perfectly I shall give an example for such that are curious to search out the vertue of the Load-stone Let the Load-stone be AB and A the North pole B the South I say that in AB the end of the stone the force is greater and in the middle of the line ILN it is more weak and drowsie unless there be any vertue unknown in the right and left side CD but the neerer it is to the North or South the more it augments but the farther off it is the more it faints Break the stone in C and G wherein there lay hid a vertue unperceived but it will appear when the stone is broken and shew its properties and one point will shew forth the North the other the South And if these things seem superfluous yet are they necessary as the grounds of what I must say CHAP. VII That by the touching of other stones those points will not change their forces ANd because I said that the Load-stone doth not always hold its forces equal but that one stone is more powerful in operation then another for some are faint and weak I shall put the first question whether by rubbing and touching the weaker stones with the stronger those forces will be changed or stay as they were as if a Load-stone is sluggish in pointing out the pole whether in a stronger stone rubbed with the North point upon the North point of the weaker can help it at all or if we shall rub the South point of the other on the North point of this whether the North point rubbed on will be gone and become the South point or continue in its former vertue Where we have not reason to direct us experience shall prove it For let a Loadstone be of what forces and properties it may be by rubbing it against
may be easily assured of this for let iron be balanced equally and let one end of the Loadstone draw it if you turn the other end to it it will fly back and turn to the contrary part these points run in a right line through the middle of the stone Yet observe this that the iron which is drawn by one point of the Loadstone or is within the compass of its vertue for a while obtains presently this vertue that what is drawn by the one end of it will be driven off by the other You shall know these differences of attraction more clearly by the following experiment CHAP. XXIV How iron will be made leap upon a Table no Loadstone being seen BY reason of this consent and discord of the Loadstone I use to make pretty sport to make my friends merry For casting the iron on the Table and not putting any Loadstone neer it that the spectators can see the iron will seem to move it self which is very pleasant to behold I do it thus divide a needle in the middle cast one half of it upon the Table but first rub the head of it with one end of the Loadstone Put your hand with the Loadstone privately under the Table and there where the head of the needle lyeth the Loadstone will stick and the needle will presently stand upright and standing so to the wonder of the beholders will walk over the Table and follow the motion of the hand that guides it when it hath gone thus a while presently turn the stone upside down and put the contrary part of the Loadstone to the needle and which is strange the needle will turn about and if it went on the head before it will now go on the point and draw your hand which way you will the needle will follow it and if you turn the stone three or four times putting sometimes the south point sometimes the north point of the stone to it the needle will turn as often and sometimes stand on the head sometimes on the point upright or walk so as you please and sometime it will go with that part it stood upon sometimes it will stand on the part it went I can present my friends with the same sight in a more strange manner for if you put the two pieces of a needle upon a paper or Table whereof one hath touched the north point the other the south point of the stone I can so place two stones that one of the needles shall go upon the head the other upon the point and sometimes one shall turn then both at once or they shall dance orderly and move when any musick is playd on And this is a pretty sight to shew your friends that cannot but admire it CHAP. XXV That the vertue of the Loadstone is sent through the pieces of Iron THat vertue that is imparted to the iron by the Loadstone doth not stay in the iron but is sent from one to another For if you draw a â—eel needle by the touch of the Loadstone and put another needle to the end of that needle that part will draw the needle and hold it hanging in the air and if you apply another needle to that it will do the same You may do this with as many needles as the force of the Loadstone can reach unto but when it grows faint the needle will let the other needle fall as not having strength enough to bear its weight And thus you may hang a great many needles in a chain in the air Plato knew this vertue for he speaks of it in Ione which stone not onely draws iron rings but infuseth vertue into the rings themselves that they can do the same and attract rings as the one doth whence sometimes you shall see a long concatenation of iron rings and all the vertue of them is attracted from that stone Lucretius knew it also A Stone there is that men admire much That makes rings hang in chains by touch Sometimes five or six links will be Fast joyn'd together and agree All this vertue from the Stone ariseth Such force it hath Pliny speaking of the same vertue saith Onely this matter receives strength from another stone and holds it a long time laying hold of another iron that sometimes you shall see a chain of rings which the ignorant vulgar call Live iron Galen You may see in the Loadstone that when it toucheth iron it will â—â—ick to it without any bands and if that was first touched touch another that will â—â—ick as the first doth and likewise a third to the second Augustine de civitate Dei speaking of this wonder said We know that the Loadstone will wonderfully draw iron which when I first saw I trembled at it exceedingly For I saw an iron-ring drawn by the stone that hung in the air by it that communicated the same force to others for another ring put to the first made that hang also and as the first ring hung by the stone so the second ring hung by the first ring In the same manner was there a third and fourth ring applied and fastned and so their rings hung together by the outsides not fastned inwardly like to a chain of rings Who would not admire at the vertue of this stone that was not onely within it but ran through so many rings that hung by it and held them fast with invisible bands But the greater the vertue of the Loadstone is the more rings it will hang up I have hang'd ten needles with a stone of a pound weight But he that would draw many needles let him rub the heads onely against the Loadstone and they will all hold the heads by their points CHAP. XXVI The Loadstone within the sphere of its vertue sends it forth without touching ANd the Loadstone doth not onely impart its vertue to the iron by touching it but which is wonderful within the compass of its vertue it will impart vertue to the iron if it be but present to draw another iron For if you put your Loadstone so neer to the iron that it may have it onely within the circumference of its vertue and you put another iron neer to that iron it will draw it to it and if another touch that which is drawn it will draw that also that you shall see a long chain of rings or needles hanging in the air But when they hang thus together if you â—emove the Loadstone a little farther off the last ring will fall and if yet you remove â— farther the next will fall until they all fall off whence it is clear that without touching it can impart its vertue to the iron CHAP. XXVII How the Loadstone can hang up iron in the air I Have a long time endeavoured much to make iron hang in the air and not touch the Loadstone nor yet tied beneath and now I think it almost impossible to be done Pliny saith it Dinocrates the Architect began to vault the Temple of Arsinoe with
divide one part into ten and that one into ten parts more and those are tens of tens Let A be nul that is a cyfer and there place sixty the second part sixty one the line joyned to right Angles will be two the third part sixty two the line joyned to it will be five so the twentieth part will be eighty and the line joyned to the Angle fifty six to the extremities of these lines I fasten a pin and I put a brass Cithern-wire upon them and upon it I draw a line and the Parabolical line is exactly described by it for should we draw it without the help of this cord it will be wavering and not perfect Then take a brass Table of convenient thickness and draw the line now found upon it filing away all that that shall be above the line CA. These things being done take an iron rod of an exact length namely twelve foot as the line DC and at the end fasten a plate which shall be for the circumvolution of the axis at the other end fasten a spike that it may be fastned somewhere and be handsomely turned about So being well fixed we turn it about by adding clay mingled with straw that it may excellent well make a hollow place like to the form of a Parabolical Section which being dried we must make another solid one that it may contain the liquid Metal as the maner is CHAP. XVII A Parabolical Section that may burn to infinite distance ZOnaras the Greek writes in the third Tome of his Histories That Anastasius moved sedition against Vitalianus a Thracian and he got those of Mysia and the Scythians to stand with him and in the Country by Constantinople he plundered the people and besieged the City with a Fleet. Marianus the Deputy opposed him and there being a fight at sea by an engine made by Proclus a most excellent man for he then was famous for Philosophy and Mathematicks for he not onely knew all the secrets of the most eminent Artificer Archimedes but he found out some new inventions himself the enemies Navy was vanquished For Proclus is reported to have made Burning-Glasses of brass and to have hanged them on the wall against the enemies Ships and when the Sun beams fell upon them that fire brake forth of them like to lightning and so burnt their Ships and men at sea as Dion reports that Archimedes did formerly to the Romans besieging Syracuse But I will shew you a far more excellent way than the rest and that no man as ever I knew writ of and it exceeds the invention of all the Antients and of our Age also and I think the wit of man cannot go beyond it This Glass doth not burn for ten twenty a hundred or a thousand paces or to a set distance but at infinite distance nor doth it kindle in the Cane where the rays meet but the burning line proceeds from the Centre of the Glass of any Longitude and it burns all it meets with in the way Moreover it burns behind before and of all sides Yet I think it an unworthy act to divulge it to the ignorant common people yet let it go into the light that the immense goodness of our great God may be praised and adored Because a proportional Radius doth proceed from the greater Section from the less is made the greater to avoid this make it of a Cylindrical Section for it is the mean and let it be set for the axis of the small and of the greater dissection which may pass through the middle parallels this held against the Sun doth make refraction of the beams sent into it very far and perpendicularly from the Centre of a Cylindrical Section and in this Art the reason cannot be found that the beams uniting should part again Wherefore it receives them directly which it sends back again obliquely into beams far from the superficies of it For the beams passing through the narrow hole of a window are forthwith dilated nor is their proportion kept by being far removed therefore it may reverberate and burn where the Cane seems clearest which will be neer the Centre nor is it far distant from the point where the rays meet but neer the ray coming forth from that point from the superficies of the Glass called Parabolicall which must remain firm in that place which I said before Let experiment be made of its vertue by threds passing from its Centre or iron wire or hair and it is no matter whether it be Parabolical or Sphaerical or any Section of the same order then let it be excellent well fitted upon the Centre of the said Section If the rays go forth above or a little beneath it is no matter if not much money or much money be laid out to make it The making of it depends meerly on the Artificers hand the quantity is nothing be it small or great The Latitude of the hollow is not necessary onely let it be sent forth from the middle that the rays may meet excellent well in the Centre Let the window be made open aslaunt that it may receive a Parabolical Glass and thus shall you have a Glass if that be well done I spake of He that hath ears to hear let him hear I have not spoken barbarously nor could I speak more briefly or more plainly But if a small one do not answer a great one in proportion know that you will operate nothing let it be large about the basis small at the top equidistant to the first Let it not be a steel Glass because it cannot sustain the heat of the burning and by burning it loseth its brightness Let it be therefore of Glass a finger thick Let the Tin foil be of purged Antimony and Lead such as they make in Germany let the form be of clay put the Glass upon it and melt it in a Glass furnace that it may take its form This is a wonder that that which causeth so much burning in the work is cold or at most but luke-warm If you would have it burn before of the Section which is about the basis make a circle in the middle point whereof fit the Artifice that the ray returning may come forth to the fore part This I have said and I have observed that we may use this Artifice in great and wonderful things and chiefly by inscribing letters in a full Moon For whatsoever we have written by this Glass as I said of a plain Glass we may send letters of it to a very great distance and because I said it sends forth to infinite distance it is sent as far as the Moon especially being helped by its light CHAP. XVIII To make a Burning-Glass of many Sphaerical Sections VItellio describes a certain composition of a Burning-glass made of divers Sphaeral Sections but what he writes he proves not nor doth he understand what he says whilst I was searching for that I found this Propound the distance of combustion let
the Vine and heal that part where it is so cut and then lay it under the ground again about three fingers deep and when that stalk shall shoot up into sprigs take two of the best of them and cherish them and plant them in the ground casting away all the other branches and by this means you shall have such kinds of grapes as you desire This very same experiment doth Pliny set down borrowing it of Columella But Didymus prescribes it on this manner Take two Vine-branches of divers kinds and cleave them in the middle but with such heedful regard that the cleft go as far as the bud is and none of the pith or juice be lost then put them each to other and close them together so that the bud of either of them meet right one with the other and as much as possibly may be let them touch together whereby both those buds may become as one then binde up the branches with paper as hard together as you can and cover them over with the Sea-onion or else with some very stiff clammy earth and so plant them and water them after four or five daies so long till they shoot forth into a perfect bud If you would produce A Fig that is half white and half red Leontinus teacheth you to do it after this manner Take two shoots of divers kinds of Fig-trees but you must see that both the shoots be of the same age and the same growth as neer as you can then lay them in a trench and dung them and water them And after they begin to bud you must take the buds of each and binde them up together so that they may grow up into one stalk and about two years after take them up and plant them into another stock and thereby you shall have Figs of two colours So then by this means All fruits may be made to be party-coloured and that not onely of two but of many colours accordingly as many kinds of fruits may be compounded together And surely these experiments are very true though they be somewhat hard to be done and require a long times practice as I my self have had experience The like experiment to these is recorded by Palladius and by other Greek Writers who shew the way How a Vine may bring forth clusters of grapes that are white but the stones of the grapes black If white and black Vines grow neer together you must shred the branches of each and presently clap them together so that the bud of either may meet right together and so become one then binde them up hard in paper and cover them with soft and moist earth and so let them lie three dayes or thereabouts after that see that they be well and fitly matcht together and then let them lie till a new bud come forth of a fresh head and by this means you shall procure in time divers kinds of grapes according to the divers branches you put together I my self have made choice of two shoots of two divers Vines growing one by another I have cleft or cut them off in that place where the buds were shooting forth leaving the third part of the bud upon the branch I fastened them together and bound them up into one very fast lest when the buds should wax greater one of them might flie off from the other I fitted them so well branch with branch and bud with bud that they made but one stalk and the very same year they brought forth grapes that had cloven kernels or stones This shoot so springing up I put to another and when that was so sprung up I put that also to another and by this continual fitting of divers sprigs one to another I produced clusters of divers-coloured and divers-natured grapes for one and the same grape was sweet and unsavoury and the stones were some long some round some crooked but all of them were of divers colours Pontanus hath elegantly shewed How Citron-trees may bear divers kinds namely by joining two sundry boughs together after the bark hath been pared a-away and fastning each to other with a kind of glue that they may grow up one as fast as the other and when they are engraffed into one stock they must be very carefully covered and looked unto and so one and the same branch will bring forth fruit of divers kinds So you may procure An Orenge-tree to bring forth an Apple half sweet and half sowre And this kind of commixtion was invented by chance for there were graffed two boughs of Orenge-trees one brought forth a sweet and the other a sharp fruit When occasion served to transplant and remove the Tree it was cut off in the middle according as Husband-men are wont to do when they plant such Trees after they are grown old and by great chance it was cut off there where the two boughs had been before engraffed and so when the stock budded afresh there arose one bud out of the sharp and sweet branches both together as they were left in the stock and this one bud brought forth Apples or fruit of both relishes Wherefore no question but such a thing may be effected by art as well as it was by chance if any man have a minde to produce such kind of fruits CHAP. V. Of a third way whereby divers kinds of fruits may be compounded together WE will also set down a third way whereby we may mingle and compound divers kinds of fruits together A way which hath been delivered unto us by the Ancients though for my own part I think it to be not onely a very hard but even an impossible matter Notwithstanding because grave Ancient Writers have set it down I cannot scorn here to rehearse it and though I have put it in practice but to no purpose for it hath not so fallen out as they write yet I will not discourage any man that hath a mind to make trial hereof for it may be that fortune will second their endeavours better then she did mine The way is this to gather many seeds of sundry Trees and fruits and wrapping them up together so to sow them and when they are grown up into stalks to bind all the stalks together that they may not flie asunder but rather grow up all into one Tree and this Tree will bring forth divers kinds of fruits yea and one and the same fruit will be mingled and compounded of many It should seem that the Authors of this experiment learned it first out of Theophrastus who writes that If you sow two divers seeds neer together within a hands breadth and then sow two other divers seeds a little above them the roots which will come of all these seeds will lovingly embrace and winde about each other and so grow up into one stalk or stock and be incorporated one into another But special care must be had how the seeds be placed for they must be set with the little end upward because the bud cometh
not out of the low and hollow parts but out of the highest And there are four seeds required because so many will easily and fitly close together A matter which if it were true it might be a very ready means which would produce exceeding many and wonderful experiments By such a means Berries that are party-coloured may be produced If you take a great many berries white and black and red one amongst another and sow them in the earth together and when they are shot up bind all their stalks into one they will grow together and yeeld party coloured berries Pliny writes that this way was devised from the birds Nature saith he hath taught how to graffe with a seed for hungry birds have devoured seeds and having moistened and warmed them in their bellies a little after have dunged in the forky twistes of Trees and together with their dung excluded the seed whole which erst they had swallowed and sometimes it brings forth there where they dung it and sometimes the wind carries it away into some chinks of the barks of Trees and there it brings forth This is the reason why many times we see a Cherry-tree growing in a Wilow a Plane-tree in a Bay-tree and a Bay in a Cherry-tree and withal that the berries of them have been party-coloured They write also that the Jack-daw hiding certain seeds in some secret chinks or holes did give occasion of this Invention By this self-same means we may produce A Fig that is partly white and partly red Leontius attempts the doing of this by taking the kernels or stones that are in a Fig somewhat inclinable to this variety and wrapping them up together in a linnen cloth and then sowing them and when need requires removing them into another place If we would have An Orenge or Citron-tree bear divers Apples of divers relishes Pontanus our Country-man in his work of Gardening hath elegantly taught us how to do it We must take sundry seeds of them and put them into a pitcher and there let them grow up and when they come forth bind the sprigs together and by this means they will grow up into one stock and shrowd themselves all under one bark but you must take heed that the wind come not at them to blow them asunder but cover them over with some wax that they may stick fast together and let them be well plaistered with morter about the bark and so shall you gather from them in time very strange Apples of sundry relishes Likewise we may procure A Damosin and an Orenge or Limon to be mixt together In our books of Husbandry we shewed at large by many reasons alledged to and fro that sundry seeds could not possibly grow into one but all that is written in favour of this practice is utterly false and altogether unpossible But this experiment we our selves have proved whereby divers kinds of Damosins are mixt together While the Damosin-trees were very tender and dainty we fastened two of them together which were planted neer to each other as Sailers plat and tie their Cables but first we pared off the bark to the inmost skin in that place where they should touch together that so one living thing might the more easily grow to the other then we bound them up gently with thin lists made of the inner bark of Elm or such like stuff that is soft and pliable for such a purpose lest they should be parted and grow asunder and if any part of them were so limber that it would not stick fast we wedged it in with splents yet not too hard for fear of spoiling it Then we rid away the earth from the upper roots and covered them with muck and watered them often that by this cherishing and tilling on they might grow up the better and thus after a few years that they were grown together into one tree we cut off the tops of them about that place where they most seemed to be knit together and about those tops there sprung up many buds whereof those which we perceived had grown out of both Trees we suffered to grow still and the rest we cut away and by this means we produced such kind of fruit as we speak of very goodly and much commended And concerning Limons I have seen some in the Noble-mens Gardens of Naples which partly by continual watering at seasonable times and partly by reason of the tendernesse and the ranknesse of the boughs did so cling and grow together that they became one tree and this one Tree brought forth fruit compounded of either kind We may also effect this featly by earthen vessels for the plants that are set therein we may very conveniently cherish up with continual watering and perform other services towards them which are necessary for their growth And as it may be done by Limons so we have seen the same experiment practised upon Mulberry-trees which growing in moist and shadowed places as soon as their boughs closed one with another presently they grew into one and brought forth berries of sundry colours If we would procure that A Lettice should grow having in it Parsley and Rotchet and Basil-gentle or any such like commixtion we must take the dung of a Sheep or a Goat and though it be but a small substance yet you must make a shift to bore the Truttle through the middle and as well as you can get out the inmost pith and in stead thereof put into it those seeds which you desire to have mingled together packing them in as hard as the Truttle will bear it and when you have so done lay it in the ground about two handful deep with dung and hollow geer both under it and round about it then cover it with a little thin earth and water it a little and a little and when the seeds also are sprung forth you must still apply them with water and dung and after they are grown up into a stalk you must be more diligent about them and by this means at length there will arise a Lettice mixed and compounded with all those seeds Palladius prescribes the same more precisely If you take saith he a Truttle of Goats dung and bore it through and make it hollow cunningly with a bodkin and then fill it up with the seed of Lettice Cresses Basil Rotchet and Radish and when you have so done lap them up in more of the same dung and bury them in a little trench of such ground as is fruitful and well manured for such a purpose the Radish will grow downward into a Root the other seeds will grow upward into a stalk and the Lettice will contain them all yeelding the several relish of every one of them Others effect this experiment on this manner They pluck off the Lettice leaves that grow next to the root and make holes in the thickest substance and veins thereof one hole being a reasonable distance from the other wherein they put the forenamed seeds all but