Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	draw_v	iron_n	loadstone_n	1,525	5	13.0457	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29027	Some considerations about the reconcileableness of reason and religion by T.E., a lay-man ; to which is annex'd by the publisher, a discourse of Mr. Boyle, about the possibility of the resurrection.	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Some physico-theological considerations about the possibility of the resurrection.	1675 (1675)	Wing E42A; Wing B4024; ESTC R16715	73,261	198

Section and indeed to a great part of this Letter He then in an Epistle that came not forth till some years after the Writers death speaks thus to the Philosophical Adversary to whom 't is addressed As I have often said when the Question is about things that relate to God or to what is Infinite we must not consider what we can comprehend of them Volume 2. Letter 16. since we know that they ought not to be comprehended by us but only what we can conceive of them or can attain to by any certain Reason or Argument SECT VII And now 't is time to advance to one of the main Considerations I had to propose to you concerning the Subject of this Letter and it is this That when we are to judge whether a thing be contrary to Reason or not there is a great deal of difference whether we take Reason for the Faculty furnish'd only with its own innate Principle and such Notions as are generally obvious nay and if you please with this or that Philosophical Theory or for the Faculty illuminated by Divine Revelation especially that which is contain'd in the Books commonly call'd the Scripture To clear and inforce this the better I shall invite you to take notice with me of the two following particulars We may then in the first place consider That ev'n in things meerly Natural Men do not think it at all Irrational to believe divers such things upon extrinsecal Proofs especially the Testimony of the skilful as if it were not for that Testimony a Man though born with good parts and possibly very Learn'd in the Peripatetick or some other particular Philosophy would look upon as Irrational to be believ'd and contrary to the Laws of Nature Of this I shall give you some Instances in the Phaenomena of the Loadstone and particularly such as these That the Loadstone though as was above intimated with one part it will draw yet with another the same stone will repel the same point of the same excited Needle and yet at the same time be fit to attract either point of another Needle that never came near a Loadstone before That though it be the Loadstone that imparts an attractive virtue to the Iron yet when the Loadstone is cap'd as they call'd it and so a piece of Iron and consequently a distance is interpos'd betwixt the stone and the weight to be rais'd it will take up by many times more than if it be it self apply'd immediately thereunto insomuch that Mersennus relates * In his little Tract de Magnetis Propri●tatibus p. m. 350. that if there be no mistake he had a Loadstone that of it self would take up but half an Ounce of Iron which when arm'd or cap'd would lift up ten Pounds which says he exceeded the former weight three hundred and twenty times That a Mariners Needle being once touch'd with a vigorous Loadstone will afterwards when freely poiz'd turn it self North and South and if it be by force made to regard the East and West or any other points of the Compass as soon as 't is left at liberty 't will of its self return to its former Position That a Loadstone floating on water will as well come to and follow a piece of Iron that is kept from advancing towards it as when it self is fix'd and the Iron at liberty 't will draw that Metal to it That without any sensible alteration in the Agent or the Patient the Loadstone will in a trice communicate all its virtues to a piece of Steel and enable that to communicate them to another piece of the same Metal That if a Loadstone having been markt at one end be cut long-wise according to its Axis and one Segment be freely suspended over the other the halves of the markt end that touch'd one another before will not now lie together but the lower will drive away the upper and that which regarded the North in the markt end of the intire Loadstone will join with that extreme of the lower half which in the intire stone regarded the South That as appears by this last nam'd Property there are the same Magnetical Qualities in the separated parts of a Magnet as in the intire stone and if it be cut or even rudely broken into a great many parts or fragments every one of these portions though perhaps not so big as a Corn of Wheat will if I may so speak set up for its self and have its own Northern and Southern Poles and become a little Magnet sui juris or independent upon the stone from which 't was sever'd and from all its other parts That if a Loadstone be skilfully made Spherical this little Magnetick Globe very fitly by our Gilbert call'd a Terrella will not only being freely plac'd turn North and South and retain that Position but have its Poles its Meridians its Aequator c. upon good grounds designable upon it as they are upon the great Globe of the Earth And this will hold whether the Terrella be great or small I might not only much encrease the number of these odd Magnetical Phaenomena's but add others about other Subjects But these may suffice to suggest to us this Reflection That there is no doubt to be made but that a Man who never had the opportunity to see or hear of Magnetical Experiments would look upon these as contrary to the Principles of Nature and therefore to the Dictates of Reason as accordingly some Learned Aristotelians to whom I had occasion to propose some of them rejected them as Incredible And I doubt not but I could frame as plausible Arguments from the meer Axioms of Philosophers and the Doctrine of Philosophick Schools against some Magnetical Phaenomena which Experience hath satisfi'd me of as are wont to be drawn from the same Topicks against the Mysterious Articles of Faith since among the strange Properties of the Loadstone there are some which are not only admirable and stupendious but seem repugnant to the Dictates of the received Philosophy and the course of Nature For whereas Natural Bodies how subtile soever require some particular Dispositions in the Medium through which their Corpuscles are to be diffus'd or their Actions transmitted so that Light it self whether it be a most subtile Body or a naked Quality is resisted by all opacous Mediums and the very effluvia of Amber and other Electricks will not permeate the thinnest Glass or even a sheet of fine Paper yet the Loadstone readily performing his Operations through all kind of Mediums without excepting Glass it self If the Poles of two Magnetick Needles do both of them regard the North another Philosopher would conclude them to have a Sympathy at least to be unlikely to ●isagree and yet if he bring these Extremes of the same Denomination within the reach of one another one will presently drive away the other as if there were a powerful Antipathy between them A somewhat long Needle being plac'd horizontally and exactly poiz'd

upon the point of a Pin if you gently touch one end with the Pole of a vigorous Magnet that end shall manifestly dip or stoop though you often take it off the Pin and put it on again And this inclination of the Needle will continue many years and yet there is not only no other sensible change made in the Metal by the Contact of the Loadstone but one end has requir'd a durable Preponderancy though the other be not lighter nor the whole Needle heavier than before And the Inclination of the Magnetick Needle may be by another touch of the Loadstone taken away without lessning the weight of the part that is depriv'd of it The Operation that in a trice the Loadstone has on a Mariners Needle though it makes no sensible change in it or weakens the Loadstone it self will not be lost though you carry it as far as the Southern Hemisphere but it will not be the same in all places but in some the Magnetick Needle will point directly at the North in others 't will deviate or decline some degrees towards the East or the West And which seems yet more strange the same Needle in the same place will not always regard the same point of the Compass but lookt on at distant times may vary from the true Meridian sometimes to the West and afterwards to the East All the communicable virtues of the Magnet may be imparted to Iron without any actual Contact of the two Bodies but barely by approaching in a convenient way the Iron to the Loadstone for a few moments And the Metal may likewise be depriv'd of those virtues in a trice without any immediate Contact by the same or another Loadstone If you mark one end of a Rod or other oblong piece of Iron that never came near a Magnet and hold it perpendicularly you may at pleasure and in the hundreth part of a minute make it become the North or South Pole of a Magnetical Body For if when 't is held upright you apply to the bottom of it the North-extreme of an excited and well-poiz'd Needle the lower end of the Iron will drive away that Extreme which yet will be drawn by the upper end of the same Iron And if by inverting you make this lower end the uppermost it will not attract but repel the same Lilly or North-point of the Needle just under which it is to be perpendicularly held Though vis unita fortior be a receiv'd Rule among Naturalists yet oftentimes if a Magnet be cut into pieces these will take up and sustain much more Iron than the intire stone was able to do If of two good Loadstones the former be much bigger and on that account stronger than the other the greater will draw a piece of Iron and retain it much more strongly than the lesser and yet when the Iron sticks fast to the greater and stronger Loadstone the lesser and weaker may draw the Iron from it and take it quite away These Phaenomena to mention now no more are so repugnant to the common sentiments of Naturalists and the ordinary course of things that if antecedently to any Testimony of experience these Magnetical Properties had been propos'd to Aristotle himself he would probably have judg'd them fictitious things as repugnant to the Laws of Nature Nevertheless though it seems incredible that the bare touch of a Loadstone should impart to the Mariners Needle a Property which as far as we know nothing in the whole World that is not Magnetical can communicate or possess and should operate as Men suppose upon it at three or four thousand Leagues distance yet this is believ'd by the Peripateticks themselves upon the Testimony of those Navigators that have sail'd to the East and West-Indies and divers even of the more rigid of the modern Philosophers believe more than this upon the Testimony of Gilbert Cabaeus Kircherus and other Learned Magnetical Writers who have affirmed these things most of which I can also averr to you upon my own knowledge Thus the Habitableness of the Torrid Zone though as I lately noted upon probable grounds deny'd by Aristotle and the generality of Philosophers for many Ages yet not only that but its Populousness is now confidently believed by the Peripatetick Schoolmen themselves who never were there And though Ptolomy and some other eminent Astronomers did with great care and skill and by the help of Geometry as well as Observations frame a Theory of the Planets so plausibly contriv'd that most of the succeeding Mathematicians for 12 or 14 Ages acquiesc'd in it yet almost all the modern Philosophers and Astronomers that have search'd into these matters with a readiness to believe their Eyes and allow their Reason to act freely have been forc'd if not to reject the whole Theory yet at least to alter it quite as to the Number and Order of the Planets though these last nam'd Innovations are sometimes solely and always mainly built upon the Phaenomena discover'd to us by two or three pieces of glass plac'd in a long hollow Cane and honour'd with the name of a Telescope The last of the two things I invited you to consider with me is this That when we are to judge which of two disagreeing Opinions is most Rational i.e. to be judg'd most agreeable to right Reason we ought to give sentence not for that which the Faculty furnish'd only with such and such Notions whether vulgar or borrow'd from this or that Sect of Philosophers would prefer but that which is prefer'd by the Faculty furnish'd either with all the Evidence requisite or advantagious to make it give a right Judgment in the case lying before it or when that cannot be had with the best and fullest Informations that it can procure This is so evident by its own light that your Friend might look upon it as an affront to his Judgment if I should go about solicitously to prove it And therefore I shall only advertise you that provided the Information be such as a man has just cause to believe and perceives that he clearly understands it will not alter the case whether he have it by Reason as that is taken for the Faculty furnish'd but with its inbred Notions and the more common Observations or by some Philosophical Theory or by Experiments purposely devis'd or by Testimony Humane or Divine which last we call Revelation For all these are but differing ways of informing the Understanding and of signifying to it the same thing as the Sight and the Touch may assure a Man that a Body is smooth or rough or in motion or at rest and in some other instances several senses discover to us the same Object which is therefore call'd Objectum Commune and provided these Informations have the conditions lately intimated which way soever the Understanding receives them it may safely reason and build Opinions upon them Astronomers have within these 100 years observ'd that a Star hath appeared among the Fix'd ones for